Swanson: Sports without a draft or trades – could you dig it?

Power to the people. The people on the pitch.

Like, a lot of power.

On Thursday, the National Women’s Soccer League and NWSL Players Association announced a stunning new collective bargaining agreement that will – among many other important gains in pay, travel, parental leave – abolish all drafts and and require players to consent to trades.

Players will either be under contract or they’ll be unrestricted free agents. No drafting, no matching offers, the ball is at their feet. Plus effectively a league-wide no-trade clause – something that’s a rare provision among NBA players now will belong to all in the NWSL.

The NWSL didn’t just cook up these ideas from scratch. Its new CBA is meant to align the growing league with FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, to put it on a more even playing field in what is an ever-more-robust international marketplace.

But still, I, as an American sports fan whose circannual rhythm has been trained on annual drafts and trade deadlines, have so many questions.

Including this: Could this brand of radical player empowerment wash up on the shores of any other American sports leagues? Maybe it seems unthinkable to you, an NFL without its multi-day draft, an NBA without its at-the-buzzer trade deadline bonanza. But indulge me and think about it anyway – what if?

Imagine a world where teams are incentivized to try only to … win?

Suck for Luck? Tank for Tua? Quit tryin’ for Zion? 

You better not! Take your Process and punt it.

But c’mon, right? Teams have bad seasons. Stuff happens; injuries, slumps, age and life and bad luck. Or just bad play. Bad decisions that need unwinding. How would an organization hope to get out of a rut and rebuild without a draft to fall back on?

Maybe, I dunno, recruit?

College programs have managed to turn things around without a draft – and, once upon a time, without even being able to offer much in terms of above-the-table financial incentives that pro teams always could. Imagine that for an organization to improve, it would also come down to attracting talent with coaching and culture, facilities and, well, fit.

Would that be asking too much?

What of the NWSL players’ notion that a draft is “an antiquated model that treats people as property to be bought and sold”?

I’d always thought of it more as a rite of passage, another feather in the cap of the LeBron Jameses and Caitlin Clarks and other peacocks of the sports world. And a part of the game for us, the fans, who love the who-should-go-where pre-draft debate and night-of theater. The snazzy fits, the snubs, the dreams coming tearfully true live on TV.

But Caleb Williams’ dad made real points in that 2023 GQ article, before the Chicago Bears picked him No. 1 overall in this year’s draft. Remember? “The funky thing about the NFL Draft process is, he’d almost be better off not being drafted than being drafted first. The system is completely backwards. The way the system is constructed, you go to the worst possible situation. The worst possible team, the worst organization in the league – because of their desire for parity – gets the first pick. So it’s the gift and the curse.”

Would Clark, the WNBA’s historic dial-mover, have chosen to sign with the Indiana Fever – for whom ticket sales were up 265% while jersey sales increased more than 1,000% since the former Iowa star joined the team – if they hadn’t had the top pick in this year’s draft?

Or would she have selected one of the WNBA’s best teams, made the rich richer in Las Vegas or New York? Who’s to say – she didn’t, after all, land in Connecticut or South Carolina to play her college hoops, she stayed home in Iowa. Maybe she would’ve chosen to sign with the four-time WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx, the team she grew up rooting for in Ames, which is about 200 miles closer to Minneapolis than to Indianapolis?

Any of the above would’ve served the WNBA, with its surging attendance and viewership, just fine. So what would’ve been the harm in letting Clark have the same autonomy as college grads in other fields who get to choose where and for whom they go work?

Now imagine being forced into an arranged contract with your first employer – and then, some months later, unbeknownst to you, your boss getting on the phone and calling his counterpart at another company in another state, and telling her that he needs someone good in marketing. And then offering you, a productive member of the accounting department, in exchange.

There are decent front-office types making these deals who recognize that trading people is not normal. We hear it from players themselves how difficult it can be, and from family members like Lauren Holiday, the wife of Boston Celtics star Jrue and a two-time Women’s World Cup champion.

After Jrue was traded to Boston last year, she shared her thoughts on Instagram: “Contrary to the cliché, it’s personal, meaning there are people’s lives that are affected. It’s never ‘just business’ … imagine a world where we didn’t hide behind the business of things, where we didn’t treat one another like commodities … if we didn’t just put dollar signs on athletes.”

A poignant post, but it also felt a touch out of touch: Put $30 million next to my name every year and, as much as I’d miss writing about Southern California sports, I could handle covering Boston teams. Dude, I’d do it for the NBA mid-level.

That you could be traded is a hazard of taking home the big bucks; it comes with the territory.

But what if your take-home pay isn’t nearly so much? What if you’re an NWSL player who’s been making the league minimum, $37,856 per season? Or, thanks to the new CBA, who’ll be earning $48,500 next year or $82,500 in 2030?

That’s not so grand a bargain, is it?

The NWSL agreed with its players who thought not, agreeing to a stipulation that figures to all but squash most trade-making, because what was previously a two-way street is becoming a much trickier intersection.

For sure, Angel City FC surely would be an attractive landing spot for would-be acquisitions because of, well, L.A.! But the team would also have to persuade a player currently enjoying this desirable locale to leave to make a deal happen, so …

And now I know I’m straining credulity, asking you to compare NBA or NFL apples and NWSL oranges – except, well, the NWSL wants to take a bite out of that apple.

Its new CBA was worked out while the league was experiencing unprecedented growth. It aims to expand to from 14 teams to 16 teams and is seeing franchise valuations boom, including with July’s sale of a controlling interest in Angel City FC – now valued at $250 million – to Willow Bay, Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.

And transactions – including trades – are a way to more American sports fans’ hearts. We, the people, love to fire up the virtual trade machine, we gamble annually on our fantasy general manager skills, we dig the drama.

Seeing how much traction the NBA has gotten out of the transaction game, the WNBA has been leaning into that aspect of its business.

But the NWSL said pass. It’ll reach for its goals by selling the product on the pitch – one that doesn’t exist without the people playing the games, and so they’re who’s being prioritized.

Maybe that isn’t so radical after all?