How Is MLS Teams Using Allocation Money

The league announced in December that, in addition to the $1.2 million of TAM given to each club in 2017, every team would be able to spend up to $2.8 million in discretionary TAM in 2018 and 2019.

Theoretically, a team could spend all $2.8 million of their discretionary TAM and not use a cent of their remaining, non-discretionary TAM in 2018.

They could then rollover the full $1.2 million in non-discretionary TAM to 2019, giving them up to $5.2 million in TAM $2.4 in non-discretionary, $2.8 in discretionary next season.

Choosing to spend discretionary TAM before using any non-discretionary TAM does have a drawback: Because discretionary TAM cannot be traded, sources said that teams are not allowed to receive anything in return when trading a player on whom they’re spending discretionary TAM.