National Women’s Soccer League

The National Women’s Soccer League appears in Planet Money vs. the NBA’s tanking problem as the U.S. sports league that abolished its draft in 2024. The episode uses the NWSL to show a more radical alternative to lottery reform: incoming players negotiate directly with interested teams while the league still maintains a salary cap.

The NWSL case reframes anti-tanking reform as a labor-market design problem. It removes the direct reward for losing, but it also raises questions about whether wealthy or highly committed owners can compound advantage over time.

Connections

• Sam Uys - commentator interviewed about the no-draft system.
• No-Draft Player Market and Sports Player Autonomy - concepts illustrated by the NWSL case.
• Sports Competitive Balance, Sports Draft Incentive Design, and League Stakeholder Alignment - broader tradeoffs the source draws from the example.