Photo: Jeff Kassouf

The National Women’s Soccer League will begin announcing the amount of allocation money traded between teams in any trades going forward. As of now, that information sharing will apply only to trades, not signings or transfer fees.

The NWSL Media Association had been asking for such transparency for the better part of two months in order to more accurately cover the league. Firstly, a thank you goes out to NWSL media relations manager Kirsten Brierley for working with the MA on this and understanding the importance of such transparency. Thank you to NWSL owners for also understanding why such transparency is necessary.

We’ve written extensively about NWSL allocation money, from the parameters laid out upon its initial announcement, to some other uses which leaked out at the draft and whether or not there was any malice of misinformation.

Regardless, going forward, teams will be required to report the amount of allocation money traded. So, when a team swaps the Nos. 2 and 3 picks for the Nos. 4 and 5 picks “and allocation money,” there’s some actual context to evaluate the trade. Now, we can also better keep track of how much allocation money a team has, to make sense of roster moves which would seemingly call for the use of it.

Backtracking to the four trades involving allocation money thus far, the league provided the following figures:

Utah Royals FC sent the Chicago Red Stars $60,000 in the Jan. 14 trade for the No. 8 draft pick.

The Red Stars paid a net sum of $80,000 to Sky Blue FC in the draft-day trade of the Nos. 4 and 5 picks for the Nos. 2 and 3 picks. That $80,000 figure includes sell-on clauses which Sky Blue added, because…

Portland Thorns FC sent Chicago $70,000 for the No. 2 overall pick on draft day.

The Orlando Pride sent Chicago $50,000 for the No. 3 overall pick on draft day.

Follow all the transactions with our transaction tracker. Now, with more transparency!