Explaining the New MLS Roster Rules

Major League Soccer completed a big step forward on Friday afternoon as they locked down certain roster rules and regulations for the 2015 season and going forward. After the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and ownership was agreed upon a few months ago, it was maintained that many of the details had yet to be worked out. Some of those details are in the books.

The league took the chance to iron out and streamline its Allocation and Discovery processes, while also eliminating the weighted lottery entirely. It would appear that mechanisms like the blind draw that generated such criticism in the past have gone the way of the Dodo.

Perhaps the biggest change in the Allocation process - and one that actually takes a step toward transparency - is the establishment of a fixed and public Allocation Player list. These players, made up of certain U.S. senior internationals, elite U.S. youth internationals, and players transferred out of MLS for more than $500,000, will be subject to the Allocation Order if they seek to return to the league. Those players are:

The above list will be made public on the league website and updated once per year, between the end of the regular season and MLS Cup. Additionally, the list will be updated when certain youth internationals turn 18, graduate from the Bradenton Residency academy, or when an MLS player is transferred out of the league for more than $500,000.

Discovery has also changed significantly, with the number of players a team may place on its list having been reduced from twelve to seven. The discovery process was used to acquire players not in MLS who are not subject to allocation, excepting: SuperDraft eligible players, Homegrown players, College Protected (i.e. drafted but unsigned) players, players whose rights are controlled by another club via some other process, and waived players.

Clubs that covet a player on another club's discovery list may force a move by offering that other club $50,000 in allocation money. The club that originally discovered the player must then either make an "objectively reasonable offer" to the player, or allow the other club to make a contract offer. This, coupled with the reduction in list size, prevents clubs from "camping" on players to keep other clubs from signing them.

These changes and more will be made public on the league website, but those are the major highlights. In addition, the league increased the salary cap by almost $400,000 and raised the maximum cap hit per player (so the cap hit the Revs are dealing with from Jermaine Jones, absent anything else) to $436,250. New England has the 14^th spot in the Allocation Order and is unlikely to make any move on that front unless they execute some kind of trade with another club.