What Time Does the NWSL Offseason Window End? | OneFootball

The return of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) now looms on the horizon, as all 14 teams prepare to reconvene for the 2025 season.

This year's schedule kicks off on March 7, with the NWSL Challenge Cup set to take place one week before the start of the regular home and away season on March 14.

Reformatted in 2024 to become a single-match tournament, this season's Challenge Cup will take place between Orlando Pride and Washington at Inter & Co Stadium.

The traditional format comprises of the winners of the NWSL Championship and NWSL Shield, but since Orlando Pride secured both trophies in the 2024 season, the Cup final will be a rematch of the Championship game.

In the lead up to the start of the new campaign, NWSL teams are now able to make changes to their roster within the awarded time period.

Sports Illustrated has outlined everything you need to know about the NWSL offseason...

What is the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)?

The 2025 NWSL framework has been reformatted to abide by the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), that was established in partnership with the NWSL Players Association.

The new CBA is set to run until 2030, and includes the abolishment of the NWSL draft, the restructuring of player contracts, as well as a keen focus on player welfare.

Clubs are now disallowed from trading players without permission, meaning that trades involving players now require their consent.

As well as this, the abolishment of the NWSL draft will encourage clubs to improve their recruitment process used when searching for talent in order to broaden its talent pool.

In short, the introduction of the CBA means that greater emphasis will be placed on the operations of offseason trade periods.

What Time Does the Offseason End?

As for the transfer window, clubs will be pushed to complete their business in a designated time space. The primary transfer window opens on Tuesday January 28, and closes on Monday March 24. The secondary transfer window will open on Tuesday July 1 and close on Monday August 25.

As well as this, the 2026 Free Agency period will commence on July 1, meaning all players with contracts ending at the end of 2025 will be able to exercise their rights to negotiate outside of their current club.

Teams wanting to sign players from European leagues will now have to wait until the summer, after the European winter transfer window officially closed on January 30.

Several NWSL stars made the journey across the pond, including U.S women's national team (USWNT) star Naomi Girma, who signed for Chelsea for a record-breaking fee.

When Does the Roster Freeze?

Due to the termination of trade windows under the new CBA, players are able to explore free agency up until the date of the roster freeze.

The 2025 roster freeze date is Thursday October 9, thereby no players will be able to be traded later than this date. This ensures that teams are not able to make changes to their player roster prior to the start of the NWSL Playoffs on November 7.

2025 NWSL Season Key Dates

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