Within the final week, I’ve seen a few attention-grabbing footage on social media on the earth of ladies’s sports activities.
On one social media submit, the image reveals the beginning lineup for the WNBA’s Connecticut Solar — however with 5 pink X’s on them. All 5 gamers that had been starters for final yr’s Solar aspect — DeWanna Bonner, DiJonai Carrington, Brionna Jones, Alyssa Thomas, and Ty Harris — are not on the staff.
On one other submit, an image reveals the beginning lineup for the 2023 New York/New Jersey Gotham of the NWSL. There have been pink X’s on seven of the 11 gamers, a few of whom accepted switch provides to Europe, others who had been traded, and nonetheless others who used their free company standing to maneuver to different golf equipment.
In all, a dozen members of that 2023 Gotham roster have moved on to groups everywhere in the globe.
What’s occurring right here? Why are groups discovering it essential to jettison massive sections of their rosters — and profitable ones at that — as a substitute of constructing on a core group?
Certain, it’s one thing that has been prevalent in males’s professional sports activities at occasions. However often, groups trying to make strikes will wait till mid-season (see: the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks final week), which generally labels groups as both “consumers” or “sellers” when it comes to heading in direction of a sure objective.
However I can’t determine precisely what Gotham FC and the Solar need to do. The gamers being let go are a number of the finest of their craft, and it isn’t as if both staff is grooming world-beating expertise (with the attainable exception of Midge Purce, who was signed within the final day or so to a contract extension with Gotham).
I suppose we’ll know extra within the subsequent few weeks as rosters kind and develop. However it’s just a little unusual to see two championship-level lineups in American professional ladies’s sports activities dissolve just about in a single day.
