This week the MLS published each team’s General Allocation Money (aka GAM) status. This follows on last year’s initial GAM reveal right after the conclusion of the 2024 regular season, and before the horse trading of the winter transfer market. It’s a brave and bold move for the league, one that gives greater transparency and insight into what is, essentially, a closed ecosystem. This data is 23-carat gold and useful fodder for fans and pundits alike, whether they are arguing with friends over beers or writing articles.
How GAM Works
GAM is essentially “free use” funds. It can be used by clubs to purchase a player during the transfer window. Or it can be used to manage their regular salary cap by allocating it onto certain players. Obviously, the larger the GAM number, the “wealthier” the club is in terms of ability to spend. How they spend it, and on whom, is entirely discretionary. In previous years the league employed a “use-it-or-lose-it” system; this year the $2.93M every team received in GAM$ can carry over.
Clubs can “earn” another $2M in GAM if they employ the U-22 roster building path. This gives young players a roster spot they might not have had, and gives the club some more cash to spend on marquee names. Ostensibly, the younger player develops, attracts attention, and hopefully gets traded (which brings in even more GAM$).
Designated Players are not covered in the GAM calculations. Their salaries and costs are measured separately.
Top 10 GAM Clubs
New York City FC — $4,223,082
San Diego FC — $4,124,655
Minnesota United — $3,897,595
Houston Dynamo — $3,723,709
Real Salt Lake — $3,303,600
Inter Miami — $3,151,842
St. Louis City SC — $2,603,976
FC Dallas — $2,363,119
CF Montréal — $1,868,808
New York Red Bulls — $1,679,089
Bottom 10 GAM Clubs
LAFC — $512,231
Philadelphia Union — $450,458
Chicago Fire FC — $449,707
Toronto FC — $425,091
New England Revolution — $318,809
Colorado Rapids — $245,208
Nashville SC — $154,293
D.C. United — $122,558
FC Cincinnati — $6,452
LA Galaxy — $0
Unpacking the Numbers
To put it bluntly… LA Galaxy are screwed. With $0 left in the bank, the current roster will be the only roster they can field in 2025 unless they sell off some players in the summer. Given their current woes, this could make for a LONG season. Cincy and D.C. United aren’t much better. All three of these teams have placed all their chips on the table.
Real Salt Lake are hurting without a designated striker since they sold Cristian Arango to San Jose. But his $1.4M GAM payday means they have lots of cash on hand. San Diego FC is luxuriating with their $4M+ surplus; the powers-that-be have been smart to keep this is reserve while they see how the first half of the season plays out.
Similar stories can be extracted for any specific team, but without these numbers being public it makes the speculation much more difficult.
The author wishes to acknowledge Tom Bogart and his website Give Me Sport for providing the date used by this article
