On Friday, Major League Soccer kicks off its 22nd season. If it were a person, our plucky little domestic league would be a college senior by now, about to strike out on its own and stop relying on its parents. In that context, the league has matured quickly.

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MLS no longer leans on the few billionaire benefactors who kept the league going through its early years. It has a long list of suitors for new teams, ready to fork out $150 million expansion fees, plus the cost of a stadium – and, you know, actually running a team.

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The circuit’s meteoric growth has shifted the narrative from questions on whether it will survive or gain more mainstream traction – both now seem like foregone conclusions – to logistical and ideological growing pains of sorts. They are good problems to have, to be sure, but here are eight pressing questions we have going into the 2017 season.

1. Is there enough talent to support 22 teams, up from 20?

It’s a question we ask every single time MLS adds a few more teams. And if MLS wasn’t a soccer league, it would probably be more acute. After all, there’s only so many places leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL can draw talent. But just about every country plays soccer, and so the international talent pool is almost bottomless. There are always more worthy players, in other words.

The process of roster building for new teams has come to appreciate this. In the expansion draft, Atlanta United and Minnesota United, the two newcomers, got to pick just five players each. In previous drafts, teams each got 10 selections.

Indeed, neither of the new teams relied much on the draft to stock its lineup, mostly going for high-upside projects instead. Atlanta then went south of the border to find key players. Minnesota brought back a fair few of its NASL-era veterans and brought home former standout Miguel Ibarra.

2. How will Atlanta United and Minnesota United fare?

It’s fairly remarkable that since Toronto FC joined the league in 2007, every subsequent addition to the league has been a success. Some have shifted the paradigm, like the Seattle Sounders and rest of the Pacific Northwest contingent. Others have merely been very solid, like the rebooted San Jose Earthquakes and the Montreal Impact. But every time that you wonder if the league has tapped all of the good markets, the next ones deliver – who knew New York had such a strong appetite for a second (more reachable) team? Or that Orlando could prove such fertile soccer ground?

From the looks of it, Atlanta and Minnesota will do just fine. Both have stadiums in the works, and Atlanta already has a staggering 30,000 season tickets sold. Minnesota has apparently shifted a super respectable 15,000.

3. What does the next round of expansion look like?

The line for the two next teams goes out the door and around the block. With LAFC already announced as the 23rd franchise and the 24th still being held for David Beckham’s forever-stalled plans in Miami, there will be two more teams starting in a few years, and two more a while after that to take the league to 28 teams.

There are no fewer than 12 markets under consideration for those four spots – or five, should Miami fall through. Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh/Durham, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis and Tampa/St. Petersburg. The process of the league sifting through the pile and trying to pick the right ones will be captivating.

4. How will TAM impact the league?

Targeted Allocation Money, not to be confused with General Allocation Money, is the league’s attempt to help teams spend on their second tier of players. While the salary cap remains a paltry $3.85 million per team, the three Designated Players only count for the first $480,000 of their salaries. With TAM, however, teams can add as much as $1.2 million per year in payroll, bringing the real cap closer to $5 million, plus DP overages. As such, several teams are now over the eight-figure threshold.

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