Major League Soccer has posted its 2018 roster rules and regulations, and for the first time in the league’s 23 year history, the senior roster salary budget, known more familiarly as the MLS salary cap, has surpassed $4 million.
Teams are allowed to have up to 30 eligible players on their active roster, but only the those occupying the 20 slots on the senior roster — typically the top earners on the squad — count against the $4,035,000 cap.
The salary cap is not a hard cap, as MLS allows its teams to buy down contracts through the use of additional league provided funds, called General Allocation Money (GAM) and Targeted Allocation Money (TAM), as well as pay above the salary threshold for up to three Designated Players.