When MLS first started releasing General Allocation Money totals for each team, the idea was that it would make things a bit easier to follow. Broadly speaking, that’s true. We now have a pretty good picture of how much each team has available at whatever point in the season the numbers are released.
In some cases, though, it only serves to obfuscate what those of us paying close attention to a specific team already know. A case in point came on Friday when the latest release suggested the Seattle Sounders had just $243,090 remaining after getting salary cap compliant on Feb. 20.
That came as a bit of a shock to many. In the previous release about a month ago, the Sounders had about $5 million more. Did they really spend all that money without actually signing any new players?
Actually, yes, they did. But that’s not why the number is a little deceiving, maybe even a lot deceiving. Allow me to explain:
What happened to the $5 million?
The GAM totals that had been previously released were basically the starting point for each team. Meaning, that’s how much money they had available to them before they had to be salary-cap compliant. As you probably know, the actual salary cap is only $6,425,000 this year. But the league actually calls that a “salary budget” because it’s very much not a spending cap. It’s just a baseline number and literally every team in the league spends more on player salaries. Most teams spend A LOT more. Even the lowest-spending teams in the league (last year it was Minnesota United) are doubling up the salary cap and teams in the middle of the spending pack are tripling it.
Without getting into a whole explainer about how that is — that’s could be entirely separate article — the thing to keep in mind here is Allocation Money is one way teams can go over that amount.
The numbers that got released on Friday are how much teams have left after using the Allocation Money they needed to use. By our estimates, the Sounders need about $5 million in Allocation Money just to get cap compliant.
Are they basically broke now?
No, is the short answer. The longer answer is that those of you paying attention to our salary-cap page have probably noticed that we estimate the Sounders still have about $3.85 million in flexibility. While that might not be 100% accurate — it is an “estimate” — I have confirmed that it’s probably not that far off.
How is that possible?
Well, I guess it’s time to finally get to the point of this story isn’t it? Best I can tell, the figure that MLS published doesn’t reflect a bunch of money the Sounders will soon have available.
