Welcome back to MLS 101, our weekly guide to make you an expert on all things MLS. This week we will be discussing player acquisition. That includes trades, drafts, and marquee transfers. Since there is so much on this topic, next week we will be delving further into it, including discussing designated players. If you missed last weeks edition, you can find that here.

Roster Rules & Salary Cap

An MLS team is allowed 28 players on their first team roster. Out of those 28 players, 18 of them must be chosen for the game-day squad.

The top 20 roster slots on a team is referred to as the ‘Senior Squad’ and the remaining 8 players make up the ‘Supplemental Squad’. Only players in the Senior Squad count towards the salary cap. The 2015 salary cap is set at $3,490,000. The maximum salary charge towards the salary cap for a single player is $436,250, but a player can be paid much more than that through the designated player rule or allocation money.

Each team is initially allocated 8 international slots on their roster, totaling 160 across MLS this season. International slots are reserved for players from outside the US for MLS teams inside the United States and for players outside the US or Canada for the 3 MLS teams in Canada. These slots are tradable and there is no limit on how many or how few international slots a team can have.

Player Acquisition Methods

Allocation Process

According the the official MLS Rules:

The Allocation Process is the mechanism used to determine which MLS Club has first priority to acquire a player listed on the Allocation Ranking List. The list will consist of (i) select U.S. Men’s National Team players, (ii) elite youth U.S. National Team players, or (iii) former MLS players returning to MLS after joining a non-MLS club for a transfer fee greater than $500,000.

The Allocation Ranking Order is determined by the standings of the previous MLS season, and expansion teams always first. Once a team uses the allocation process, it drops to the bottom of the allocation order. For example, Atlanta United will be at the top of the allocation order in 2017 and whoever has the least amount of points in the 2016 season well be second in the allocation order. So if Atlanta United use the allocation process to sign Jozy Altidore in 2017, Atlanta will drop to the bottom of the list and the team with the least amount of points in the 2016 will then be top of the allocation order. These rankings can be traded for between MLS teams.

Allocation Money

Allocation money is money provided by the league itself to clubs, not including its salary budget. Allocation money can be used for signing new players and resigning current MLS players. In 2015, the normal allocation was $150,000 per club, but a club can receive more if one of three things happen: 1) If they don’t qualify for the MLS playoffs 2) A player is transferred out of the MLS 3) A club qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions League.

Allocation money can be traded just like allocation ranks, and can reduce a players salary charge against the salary cap. For example, for a player on a salary of $500,000 a year, a club can use $100,000 of their allocation money to reduce amount going against the salary cap down to $400,000.

Targeted Allocation Money

Target Allocation Money is a new rule introduced by the MLS that provides each MLS club an additional $100,000 each year for the next five years to put towards players who would be over their salary budget. Clubs can use this money to buy players whose salary would be above the salary cap, “buy-down” the salary of a player (as previously discussed), sign a more expensive contract with a player that would put him over the salary cap, or trade it with another team. Clubs can use more than the yearly $100,000 to sign new players but may not exceed their total allotted $500,000.

MLS Drafts

The MLS SuperDraft is a yearly event that allows MLS teams to sign players from college. The January event is split into four rounds and the team finishing with the lowest amount of points the previous season picks first, much like the NFL draft. Only players from NCAA member colleges are allowed to participate in the draft which excludes players from Canadian universities.

Atlanta United will have the first pick of the 2017 MLS SuperDraft as it will be the newest team. Michael Bradley, Nick Rimando, Alan Gordon, and Cyle Larin are all former draft picks.

Teams can trade players and allocation money for draft picks.

Finally, the MLS Expansion Draft. The Expansion Draft is only open to expansion teams, for example the 2014 MLS Expansion draft was only open to NYCFC and Orlando City SC. In this draft expansion teams are allowed to pick 10 players from the remaining teams. However, the expansion team can only pick one player single existing MLS team and those teams are allowed to protect 11 players on their roster. Atlanta United will likely participate in the 2016 MLS Expansion Draft.

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