MLS releases GAM totals for each team

In an obvious positive step toward better transparency, MLS released on Thursday the amount of General Allocation Money (GAM) that each team has available. The figures aren’t fully transparent — I’ve been told they are already a bit off — but they do at least give us a decent starting point in figuring out how much GAM is both in the system and available to each team.

As of Dec. 10, 2024, for instance, the Sounders have about $4.2 million of GAM available. That’s actually about $700,000 more than I had previously estimated, and the ninth most in the entire league.

Once you combine that with the CBA-mandated Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) and each team’s salary budget, you get a much fuller idea of how much each team has to spend against the cap. Here’s how it looks:

While this is meant to be helpful, I realize a lot of folks’ eyes will sort of gloss over when they’re seeing all these terms and figures. I’ll do my best to provide some more explanation here: