Garber is doing his state of the league speech and as part of it MLS released some
major news for the next two seasons: in 2018 and 2019, clubs will be able to spend an additional $2.8m of TAM each season on top of the $1.2m they do now.
This is going to have a BIG effect on the number of non-famous but still higher-end players coming into the league. It's also going to help differentiate the ambitious, quality owners/FOs from the shitty ones. Organizations like New England, Philly, Colorado, DC, etc are going to find it harder and harder to compete in this environment. That accountability is a good thing.
For the uninitiated, allow me to explain this area of Major League Soccer's painfully Rube Goldberg-esque rules.
1. The 2018 salary budget per team is $4,035,000 as per the CBA. However, there are a variety of ways that clubs can spend far more on player salaries than this.
2. The first method is the Designated Player rule. Teams can sign up to three DPs at any salary. Despite sometimes enormous salaries, the salary cap hit for DPs is only $480k. The cap hit for DPs who are younger is considerably smaller ($200k for 21-23, $150k for 20 or younger) to incentivize teams to sign young talent.
3. There is also General Allocation Money (GAM) and Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) which is basically tradable extra salary cap space. TAM is a relatively new invention and it comes with strings attached. It has to be used on player who make between the CBA-negotiated max salary budget charge (which was $480k in 2017, probably a little higher in 2018) and $1m.
Q: Why the F doesn't MLS just make it simple by raising the salary cap and dispense with the GAM/TAM nonsense?
A: Because TAM rules ensure that 100% of the new spending goes to obtaining higher quality players and 0% of the new spending winds up inflating the salaries of the rank-and-file.
TAM players suiting up for MLS Cup include Victor Vazquez and Roman Torres. So we're talking about those kinds of guys - not particularly well-known, but if you have a team full of them plus
Anyway, TAM per team since it was invented:
2015: $500k
2016: $800k
2017: $1.2m
2018: $4m
2019: $4m
In addition, in 2018 and 2019 TAM player salaries can max out at $1.5m instead of today's $1m.