MLS, as they’ve done for multiple years now, just released its recent GAM figures for each respective team. On FAM, we’ve really hammered these releases as insights into how teams can build for the future and whether a team has done a proper job managing their resources. MLS is a unique league; you can essentially trade cap space (GAM), and recently, you’ve been able to carry over that extra space for other seasons.
This release is a bit different, though. We don’t know the future of GAM and the current system MLS has. There have been reports of a proposal involving a major overhaul and big changes that would dump a lot of the current mechanisms for a more open system. I’ve made my proposal clear on FAM that I think an increase in the actual space provided can be more than enough to change up the league as a whole.
However, we also have the track record of MLS. The league had a moment to switch its calendar with a built-in break due to the 2026 World Cup and instead chose to go with 2027. The result has been a very strange MLS season and essentially three half-seasons: the 2026 first half, 2026 second half, and the 2027 sprint season. The league has to get the majority of its owners on board, and with the financial implications of this league, that is never easy.
Even with new commissioner Larry Berg, I’m not sold that we will see a major overhaul to the system. It’d be very hard to move away from GAM and I don’t see all the owners saying hey, we’d sign off on a complete overhaul. Do I agree with that? No, but I’m just conveying how I feel about the situation as a whole.
This is laying some groundwork for how I will continue to evaluate GAM metrics, because often when I mention the future, people will hit me with ‘Well, that won’t matter with the new rules!’ We don’t know the new rules. It’s crazy to me that people took an article talking about a proposal and are running as if MLS signed off on everything said in it.
My gut feeling is that there hasn’t been a final set of rules given to teams for what to expect for the 2027-28 season. As I said earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised if GAM survives that, making it an important piece that we have to evaluate at face value.
So that’s how we’re going to evaluate things on here. For these numbers, we’re going to assume that dGAM has been used by every team (as rational teams would) and that all this GAM can be rolled over. We’re also going to be baking in some potential GAM from sales (Gozo, Bombino, Wolff, Joveljic, McGlynn, Ordaz, Herrington) to our numbers. How will this affect roster building in 2027 and 2027/28? Well, let’s see.
The first image will be the official 2026 numbers presented by MLS. The second image will be the 2027 numbers with rollover and trades. I’m not including the potential GAM from transfers just because we’re not officially sure about the timing, so I don’t want to say Hey, here are the numbers that even I’m not sure about.
The Big Dogs
There are three teams that have stood out to me that have very healthy GAM situations, including one that I ragged on earlier this year.
Real Salt Lake
The first is Real Salt Lake. I am projecting RSL to have over $10M in GAM going into the 2027 sprint season. They’re not only sitting on $2.5M in 2026 GAM, but they also have the second-most 2027 GAM due to their trades of Pablo Ruiz, Braian Ojeda, and Brayan Vera. They’ve netted an extra $1.45M 2027 GAM with their moves. Add the Gozo transfer, and man, their number is looking strong. Those numbers can be used to add even more pieces to a club that needs to retool. They’ll have two potential DP spots, and with that much GAM, you really don’t need to go 2+4 (unless you want to hold some powder for 2027/28). Money won’t be a constraint for these teams.
Philadelphia Union
The Philadelphia Union have also built up a war chest of GAM but… it feels as if it’s because they haven’t spent any big money outside of re-acquiring Kai Wagner. They started 2026 with $4.7M. The second release put them at $4.4M. The third and final release now has them at $4.7M. Their recent run hasn’t been the result of adding big players or spending big; it’s been the result of just playing the youth more and trusting them. I’m estimating that the club will convert $2M of the Olwethu Makhanya sale to GAM, which could lead them to have over $11M in GAM if our assumptions hold true.
The big question is, how would that work for this club? Okay, they have a boatload of money, but the Union has clearly leaned into their academy for its youth movement. They’ll have Cavan Sullivan until 2028 before he goes to Man City, and I assume will continue to want to push the youth under Jon Scheer, who was the Union’s director of academy. You don’t want to clog playing time for the youth at a club that prioritizes that. Do you just continue to keep the powder dry until there comes a moment when you should spend? That’s where it gets tricky for the Union.
Austin FC
I wanted to give a special shoutout to Austin FC because with their new leadership, they’ve managed to completely turnaround its GAM fortunes. The vast majority of these moves happened before Khaled El Ahmad joined as Sporting Director, so I’m going to give credit to Dean Costalas, Senior VP of Soccer Strategy.
Austin came into the season with the worst GAM numbers in MLS. I talked about how this team was in GAM hell, and how Rodo Borrell continuously talked about how they have no GAM.
Well, they fired Borrell and brought in guys who understand the league and how to generate GAM. They traded Dani Pereira, which single-handedly flipped their numbers. They didn’t stop there; they traded Owen Wolff to SKC in a cashfer, potentially generating up to $3M in GAM. Those team moves alone have pushed Austin from the red in 2027 to basically a net zero and have allowed them to carry over a good portion of GAM. I have them at around $9M with the Wolff move, which is remarkable given the circumstances they had going into the season.
Borrell could’ve fixed this problem, but he flat-out chose not to. Competent front office additions were made, and guess what? The team is in a much healthier position, with two U22 spots and plenty of spots to fill. Oh, and they’re right back in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff spot under coach Davy Arnuad.
Honorable Mentions
San Diego FC has continued to sit on a boatload of GAM and may have added more to it with the sale of Luca Bombino. We’ll see if they are a bit more aggressive in adding pieces or will continue to sit on the loads of GAM they have.
Sporting Kansas City has the pieces to retool its roster after having a bit of a bare team to start the year. David Lee could have up to $9M in GAM in 2027. Again, for a lot of these teams, they’ll have money to blow on their cap space.
Finally, Minnesota United is basically a friend of the blog with how healthy their cap situation is. They’ve added TAM pieces, but it just hasn’t resulted well on the field so far. Hank Stebbins now has the keys (for now), so we’ll see if anything changes in their signings.
… a bit worrisome
LA Galaxy
It’s a bit of a meme at this point, but once again, the LA Galaxy’s GAM position in 2027 will not be good! They’ve spent $1.34M of their 2027 GAM on Jakob Glesnes, Pablo Ruiz, and international slots. They’re going to have to figure out Joao Klauss’ situation and how he will hit the books since he won’t have to be a DP anymore. Currently, my projections have them at the lowest 2027 GAM totals in MLS.
There aren’t many big-salary players coming off the books. Again, much like Austin earlier this year, the question lies in who you sell to generate allocation money. Is it Justin Haak? Is it waiting for Marco Reus to get off the books at the end of 2027? That is the issue. The team is currently sitting in 10th place, and while Riqui Puig will be back next season, they’ve been in salary cap hell since they won MLS Cup. It’s clearer than ever that the team leveraged so much in 2024 to win the cup, which is totally fine. Again, though, you’ve had two seasons to rebuild some sort of GAM chest, and instead it’s just dwindling.
FC Dallas
This one may come as a surprise, but FC Dallas’ cap situation has caught me off guard. I was staring at the beautiful GAM is Fun app, and noticed that FCD has spent the third-most 2027 GAM in MLS at $950K. It’s been spent all over the place, from the discovery rights for new signing Daniel Job, to goalkeeper Daniel from San Jose, to $350K in draft picks. Now, there may be some money for the transfer of Loucius Deedson (who’s listed as a free transfer on Transfermarkt) and Tsiki Nstabaleng, but their number seems so small.
And it makes sense; the last big revenue-generating move for FCD was the Jesus Ferreira trade, which gave them over $1.5M in GAM. The saving grace may be if Ferreira hit those listed conditionals, which is up to $800K. Some of that, I believe, we would’ve already seen in the numbers (ex if he hit a condition in 2025, then we’d see it in 2026 GAM figures). They would need over $600K in conditionals or transfer revenue to get out of my bottom five projected numbers. With a club that needs to take advantage of Petar Musa and his brilliance, the onus is on them to bring in as many players as possible. They’re sitting on one DP spot though… and not much else room to operate.
They do have players that they can sell though, to produce revenue. Nolan Norris should be a U22 in MLS, but the club has filled all of its spots. I’m curious to see if there’s a team that will attempt to buy him as a cashfer and place him into one of their slots. Logan Farrington is on a cap-friendly deal and has had another great season in the league. Could one of those teams with plenty of GAM offer it to bring him in? These moves would impact the team on the field, but would also produce the money needed to keep improving it.
New York Red Bulls
Yikes man. The Red Bulls have zero GAM to carry over. You read that right… zero. Nashville also has zero but is sitting first in MLS. The Red Bulls have had a youth movement under Michael Bradley but have been struggling to string together consistent results. They just signed Julian Hall to a U22 deal and have Adri Mehmeti in the wings, along with expiring deals for Eric Choupo-Moting and Emil Forsberg.
The Red Bulls have plenty of potential spots to operate in. They can add two DPs. They can go 2+4 and bring in some GAM. But the biggest thing si that they can sell one of Mehmeti or Hall to bring in that sweet $3M in GAM that they can use to retool their roster. Still, to me it’s stunning that a team with only one TAM player can have zero GAM. Their situation almost reminds me of Austin’s last year. How do you have one TAM player and no GAM? What the hell are you spending it on? I’m not exactly worried about the Red Bulls, but it’s just hard to believe a team can have so little allocation money with so few players above that $803,125 mark.
Hope y’all enjoy the GAM talk. We’ll get into some more GAM theory later!