Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant has an economics degree from Stanford and is a longtime member of the executive council for the MLS players union. But even he throws his hands up in surrender when asked to explain the league's Byzantine pay structure.
"It's complicated," he said.
There's a salary cap and rules that allow teams to avoid it. There are regulations for signing homegrown players and others for signing foreign players. There are minimum wages and maximum wages and wages determined by where a player stands on his team's roster.
And as if all that wasn't confusing enough, the league added another wrinkle this month by approving a rule that allows teams to spend up to $500,000 in league funds over five years to skirt all those other regulations.