The U.S. Women's National Team Players Association is donating $16,000 to help get the union for players in the NWSL "off the ground," according to Anne Peterson of the AP. The donation "represents the proceeds from T-shirts sold as part" of the U.S. national team's '16 #equalpayforequalplay campaign while the players "sought a new labor agreement with U.S. Soccer." A deal between the two sides was struck in April. The group "seeks to represent the interests of non-allocated players with the league's 10 teams and the league office." FC Kansas City MF and NWSL President Yael Averbuch said that the donation will "help launch the union." USWNTPA interim Exec Dir Becca Roux said that the national team players "wanted to empower their NWSL teammates." Averbuch said that the NWSL union will "look for ways to improve the financial situation for its players." The minimum salary for "non-allocated players in the league is $15,000 and many have second jobs" (AP, 9/28).
FAILED PASS? NWSL Houston Dash F Carli Lloyd on Thursday promoted the league's new "Pass the Ball" initiative, which she said is designed to give "young girls a reason to look up to" female soccer players and "being female role models." NBC's Megyn Kelly noted the effort has drawn some "A-list help" from Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon and Ellen DeGeneres, among others, to "empower women to dream big" ("Megyn Kelly Today," NBC, 9/28). However, SB NATION's Kevin McCauley wrote the campaign is "not an advertisement for the league at all." It instead is a "cavalcade of celebrities espousing tired tropes about women's sports." There also are no NWSL players in the spot and "zero clips of soccer being played." McCauley: "NWSL's marketing strategy makes me feel like the people in charge don't believe they can get people interested in the product itself" (SBNATION.com, 9/28).
