The NWSL's new compensation rules are designed in part to lure major international talents to the league or, in the case of former Chicago Red Stars striker Samantha Kerr , keep them there. (Photo by Andy Mead/ISI Photos/Getty Images).

It's been obvious to anyone paying attention: For the past few years, women's soccer has been on the rise across the world. Broadcast viewership is up, tickets are selling out, and sponsors are throwing money at the chance to partner with aspirational female athletes.

But as the sport becomes more competitive globally, the burden has been on the National Women's Soccer League to keep up. The American league would need to transition to a “version 2.0” – and sweeping changes for next season are designed to achieve just that.

“We have a desire to continue to be in the best in the world and that means standards are going to rise,” said Steve Malik, owner of the North Carolina Courage. “Who do you think everyone is gunning for anyway? From a talent standpoint, everybody's coming at us, and we're embracing these changes to give clubs more tools to raise their quality.”

The new rules will do everything from allowing stars to earn big paychecks to ensuring all players have year-round housing and long-term contracts. These steps on their own wouldn't transform the league, but together in a batch of changes, NWSL owners are hoping to push the league into its next era.

A new spending model to re-shape the NWSL

The surest sign that NWSL 2.0 has arrived comes from a new compensation model designed to upgrade the 7-year-old league from a fledgling startup to a contender on the world stage.

It starts with adding the ability for NWSL clubs to buy and sell players in the transfer market – but the changes will go a step beyond with a new mechanism called allocation money. Starting for the 2020 season, clubs can purchase up to $300,000 in allocation money to spend on players above the NWSL maximum salary of $50,000.

Clubs that miss the playoffs will be entitled to buy an extra $100,000. The NWSL hasn't announced that extra way of adding allocation money, but a source shared the rules with Yahoo Sports.

That influx of cash should fundamentally change the types of international players the NWSL can attract and retain, even while the league maintains a frugal business model aimed at sustainability. France's Amandine Henry and Scotland's Kim Little have been outliers in their willingness to leave European clubs to come to the NWSL – the more likely scenario is them leaving, just like Samantha Kerr did, for the bigger paychecks offered overseas.

“It's already allowed us to have conversations that a year ago I wouldn’t have even tried to open the door because we would've been so far away in what we could offer,” Utah Royals general manager Stephanie Lee told Yahoo Sports last month. “At least for the Royals, it's already allowed us to have better conversations.”

View photos USWNT players like Christen Press are locked into playing in the NWSL, but players on the national team bubble are free to pursue opportunities in Europe. The new compensation guidelines aim to keep them stateside. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images) More

But those conversations aren't just with international players. Lee, who helped write the new rules on the NWSL competition committee with Reign FC owner Bill Predmore and Portland Thorns general manager Gavin Wilkinson, said allocation money also targets U.S. players.

While contracted USWNT players are locked into playing in the NWSL – none of them can leave the league in 2020 – the players on the national team bubble are free to consider offers in Europe. Those are players the NWSL needs to retain to maintain its level of quality.

Similarly, the NWSL has run into challenges keeping young draft picks as well. Hailie Mace and Julia Ashley, for instance, were drafted by Sky Blue FC for the 2019 season and decided to forgo the NWSL in favor of leagues in Sweden and Australia, respectively.

“The final piece is looking at the new draft picks coming up,” Lee said. “Our minimum salary was a third of what they could make as a rookie salary in Norway or Sweden, so we had to be realistic about wanting to retain those players as well.”