Major League Soccer dropped their 2026 General Allocation Money numbers and Minnesota United are sitting on a lot of GAM, but nowhere close to most in the league. The Loons sit inside the top 10 in the league, but are nowhere close to the top. MNUFC is sitting on just over $4 million, but Sporting KC tops the list with $6.38 million.
GAM Notes
- Only Sporting KC and Colorado Rapids have over $5 million in GAM
- MNUFC is one of eight teams with over $4 million
- Four clubs have under $100K
- The team with the lowest (LA) and the highest (SKC) GAM available finished 26th & 27th overall in the league last season
So what can GAM even be used for? Well I'm [kind of] glad you asked, because it's somewhat complicated. General allocation money is basically money to buy down budget charges. More specifically it can be used to buy down 100% of a transfer fee and/or a players budget charge, but that's not everything. 200 thousand dollars of it can be used to sign a homegrown player and it can be traded with other clubs. It's a weird addition to the salary cap that isn't really a salary cap rule that Major League Soccer uses. Allocation money was also previously used in the NWSL, but that was eliminated in favour of a higher salary cap during their last CBA.
GAM Top 10
- Sporting Kansas City - $6,380,121 (finished 27th lg. / 15th conf. in 2025)
- Colorado Rapids - $5,007,225 (21st / 11th)
- Portland Timbers - $4,788,001 (17th / 8th)
- San Jose Earthquakes - $4,725,751 (20th / 10th)
- Real Salt Lake - $4,435,148 (19th / 9th)
- Philadelphia Union - $4,393,417 (1st / 1st)
- San Diego FC - $4,211,327 (4th / 1st)
- MNUFC - $4,157,930 (8th / 4th)
- CF Montréal - $3,247,472 (28th / 13th)
- Toronto FC - $3,078,603 (25th / 12th)
Both conference champions from last season along with three other playoff teams sit in the top five in available general allocation money. The numbers don't lie and what they say is that the amount of GAM a club has really doesn't factor into their success. Rather it's how and on whom they use what is basically extra money from the league. But that's not the whole story as GAM is traded between clubs all the time, which leaves the entire concept in a weird state. How useful is it really? Should it be dumped and the cap raised? Should the league allow more DP's? Those are questions that will probably (maybe) come up at some point with the new calendar change.
GAM Bottom Five
- LA Galaxy - $0 (26th / 14th)
- Inter Miami - $17,361 (3rd / 3rd - won MLS Cup)
- Vancouver Whitecaps - $20,945 (2nd / 5th)
- Charlotte FC - $75,994 (7th / 4th)
- New York Red Bulls - $189,830 (18th / 10th)
