Through various trades and sales, the Seattle Sounders stockpiled Allocation Money (both Targeted Allocation and General Allocation). Those funds can be used to pay down the salary cap hit for signings and/or pay a player over their reported salary. According to Kristian Dyer of MSG Networks the Sounders have one of the two biggest pools of allocation money in MLS with $900,000 available, give or take a couple dollars.
This makes sense. President and General Manager Garth Lagerwey indicated in the preseason that the organization had enough funds to sign a full season Designated Player and pay down Osvaldo Alonso’s cap hit below the max. That would take significant funds, and Seattle had them.
Waiting until midseason to use that money extends the club’s ability to pay down contracts for more than just the ‘17 season. They should be able to find ways to pay down contracts into ‘18 now. There was already a scheduled injection of TAM on an annual basis and GAM is added every year as well.
Dyer is reporting two other things relevant to Seattle fans.
Seattle is pursuing Guy Serge Edoa from Rainbow FC in Cameroon. The 25-year-old attacking mid is expected to be signed to S2, who already has experience with other Cameroonians (Nouhou, Rodrigo Ele, Felix Chenkam, and Mark O’Ojong). He most recently played for Lion Blessé in the Cameroonian first division.
He also says league sources expect another infusion of Targeted Allocation Money in the coming offseason. Sounder at Heart can independently confirm this expectation.