On Tuesday, Major League Soccer released its roster rules and regulations for the upcoming 2024 season. While year-to-year, there aren’t massive changes to these rules, there were several key differences that will help clubs like FC Dallas build out their rosters this year.

Let’s dive into the changes:

New Budget Charges

The salary budget per club is $5.47 million (up from $5.21 million) and the TAM floor is now $683,750 (up from $651,250).

The senior minimum is $89,716, up from $85,444; the reserve minimum is $71,401, up from $67,360.

The Maximum Salary Budget Charge for a single player is $683,750.

Allocation Updates

The Garber Bucks are also seeing a slight increase in 2024. General Allocation Monday (GAM) is now at $2.585 million in 2024, up from $1.9 million. Target Allocation Monday (TAM) is now $2.4 million in 2024, down from $2.72 million.

TAM, on the other hand, no longer expires. Any “unused” TAM would “roll over” to the next year before expiring after four windows (or two years). Teams can now essentially bank their TAM for the future. However, it is still likely that TAM will be gone in future seasons and merged back with GAM.

New Roster Slots

There are no changes to slots 21-24. Those can still be filled with Senior Minimum Salary Players ($89,716), which may include Homegrown Players, Generation adidas Players, any specifically designated players eligible for the MLS SuperDraft, or Homegrown Players earning more than the Senior Minimum Salary subject to the Homegrown Player Subsidy.

  • For FC Dallas, this may end up being guys like Jimmy Maurer, Omar Gonzalez, Amet Korca.

We have changes to slots 25-30. 29 and 30 can now be used for Generation adidas players, where clubs previously couldn't do so. In previous years, slots 29 and 30 were considered Homegrown Reserve.

These slots (25-30) may be filled with players earning the Reserve Minimum Salary ($71,401), which may include Homegrown Players, Homegrown Players earning more than the Reserve Minimum Salary subject to the Homegrown Player Subsidy, or Generation adidas Players (earning the Reserve Minimum Salary).

New U.S. residency interview window

The deadline for when a player must have their U.S. residency interview to be considered a domestic player has changed from February 24 to the opening date of the summer transfer window on July 18 to have either been granted a green card or appeared for a GC interview.

Discovery Slots

FC Dallas fans will remember this came into play with the signing of Petar Musa. Starting after the 2024 Roster Compliance date, clubs will have five Discovery List slots instead of seven. However, expansion side San Diego will still receive seven slots in their inaugural season.

Unlimited Intraleague Loans

While we really do not see a ton of these types of loans, the league has ditched the two-loan maximum for an unlimited number of loans within the league.

Subscribe now