RSL and TAM

Discussion in 'Real Salt Lake' started by Med_Phys, Jan 18, 2020.

  1. Med_Phys

    Med_Phys Member+

    RSL
    United States
    Jun 20, 2019
    Terre Haute, IN
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hi everyone,
    I don't post much here, but I enjoy reading everyone's input. I'm hoping this will be a good discussion, maybe even lead to the podcasts and such to dive into this to give us fans even more information.
    In short, my question is, what does RSL do with all its TAM money? Teams get $1.2M every year. They can buy up to $2.8M more from the league. I know teams get something for not making the playoffs, but I don't know if it's TAM or GAM or both. In addition, when you sell a player, you get some of that in TAM over a period of time (someone that knows more than me, please feel free to add those details). For the purpose of this discussion, I think we should assume RSL has up to $4M in TAM to use.
    Now, the discretionary TAM (2.8M) can't be used in trades, only to buy down a bit player's budget charge (salary between $530k and $1.5M, I believe). Using last year's salary info, the following players could have TAM used to buy down their budget charge:
    Everton: $1.1M
    Damir: $1.08M
    Plata: $856k
    Silva: $776k
    Johnson: $767k, but he was a DP
    From those numbers, it looks like RSL only spent about $1.75M in TAM last year. That's a big gap in what they have available, provided DLH wants to spend the money. I kind of understand not wanting to when you're paying $3+M to players not on the team.
    For this upcoming season, RSL should have more flexibility in their TAM. Plata probably isn't coming back and hopefully Silva isn't above $530k. Nedum was at $504k last year, so maybe he's just above it this year. Even if Everton and Damir take up about $1.2M in TAM, if the team uses all its discretionary TAM ($2.8M), that's another $1.6M available (two or more players like them) plus we could use the $1.2M in league trades.
    Now RSL may only have a few roster spots left and I'm not sure about the international slot situation (maybe we have one open?), but it sure seems like there should be resources available to add impact players to this team.
    I'm going to make one suggestion for a player addition using TAM. Kemar Lawrence, LB from NYRB. He said he wants out, he made about $400k last year. I think he'd give us arguably the best back four in the league. I think a trade of $500k or so in TAM would get it done(guestimate based on trades this off-season) and it sure looks like we could make it work budget-wise. DLH said he was going to spend this off-season, this is one way to do it.
    Please let me know if I misspoke on any of this. I'm hoping for a good discussion. I've just been frustrated as a fan as it seems like the team isn't using all its possible resources to improve the team. I think an informed fan base is important and maybe this will help others who don't understand some of the league mechanisms. Flame away.
     
    georg, 15 to 32, rslfanboy and 3 others repped this.
  2. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Admittedly, I never have grasped the nuances of TAM, GAM, etc... I just don’t have the patience to sit down and study it for more than 10 minutes.

    Kemar is arguably the best LB in MLS and would be a great addition to the roster. I wonder about his salary though. I realize that it has been less than $400K at RBNY, but Transfermarkt lists his value at $2.8 Million.
     
    15 to 32 repped this.
  3. kirsoccer

    kirsoccer BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 29, 2007
    I think just after the season ended, DLH was bragging about how much cap space the team had with Movsisyan and Pool Boy contracts coming off the books. Not sure what the team is doing with those dollars. It's an enigma. Afraid the view is that, "well we made the playoffs last year, so we're good".
     
    jessyca and RSLer repped this.
  4. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I support this post since it agrees with my much maligned narrative that “Just make the playoffs” is his vision for the team’s on-field results.
     
  5. 15 to 32

    15 to 32 Straw Hog

    Jul 1, 2008
    Salt Lake
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There is likely a password protected spreadsheet at each club (and a master one at the league office) with the ability to see just how all of this nonsense works. It's made by that person at your office who geeks out on formulas in their spreadsheets.

    password: JurgenSux

    but on a serious note: How all of this is tracked is intriguing to me and feels like something that would make for a really cool study. I don't have the time to dive into it, sadly, but would pay someone to dive more. Like $2 whole dollars.
     
    RSLer repped this.
  6. goobx1

    goobx1 Member+

    Jul 9, 2007
    Salt Lake
    TAM or GAM dollars?
     
  7. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You could offer them a lifetime supply of straws.
     
    15 to 32 repped this.
  8. Med_Phys

    Med_Phys Member+

    RSL
    United States
    Jun 20, 2019
    Terre Haute, IN
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So if Sava is sold, we'd have even more TAM to use. How many years can you stretch it over?
    Side note, what are the chances RSL is expecting big changes to the CBA? Also, has anyone heard anything about that? It's supposed to expire in 5 days...
     
  9. rslfanboy

    rslfanboy Member+

    Jul 24, 2007
    Section 26
    From the MLS N&A Forum:
     
  10. BalanceUT

    BalanceUT RSL and THFC!

    Oct 8, 2006
    Appalachia
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would not be a bit surprised to learn that it is completely bogus and is only a way to obfuscate the league giving signing permissions to some teams and denying it to others.
     
  11. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That’s kind of my perspective. It has the feels of a smoke and mirrors slush fund. The league uses it however The Don sees fit to. At the same time the players association views some of these different funding mechanisms as a means of denying compensation to the bulk of the team rosters (see tweet posted above by @rslfanboy ).
     
  12. Med_Phys

    Med_Phys Member+

    RSL
    United States
    Jun 20, 2019
    Terre Haute, IN
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So, the new CBA was agreed to and details are coming out. I still have lots of questions for the F.O. Available to spend on a roster goes from $8.49m to $9.225m this year. The $1.2m in TAM is being converted to GAM. The discretionary TAM is $2.8m this year, but goes down over the length of the CBA.
    I'm curious how this new under-22 rule (3 players, reduced budget charge) will work.
    Sure looks like RSL should have a boatload of money to spend on players, but they have brought in: Chang, Iloski, Jones, MacMath, Morgan and Garcia (HG, according to the RSL show). None of those make substantial money. Still looking like a team that doesn't want to spend the money. Hope I'm wrong.
     
  13. kirsoccer

    kirsoccer BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 29, 2007
  14. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  15. Allez RSL

    Allez RSL Member+

    Jun 20, 2007
    Home
    That's nice. I wonder how a graph of median team total spending would be different. It'd be hard to include transfer fees but critical for complete understanding.
     
    rslfanboy repped this.
  16. rslfanboy

    rslfanboy Member+

    Jul 24, 2007
    Section 26
    I dig your new "caramel popcorn Sun" profile image.
     
    Allez RSL repped this.
  17. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I thought this might be the best thread for this. More incentive for RSL to run an excellent Academy and to actively more young players to the Monarchs and Senior Team rosters. I hope the FO realizes the potential.

     
    Allez RSL and Todorojo repped this.
  18. 15 to 32

    15 to 32 Straw Hog

    Jul 1, 2008
    Salt Lake
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    did this go into effect before or after the Sava sell? Because that sucks if it is after
     
  19. Todorojo

    Todorojo Member

    Oct 27, 2008
    South Weber, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    I believe I read that they were back dating it to January 1st. So it should have been in effect for Sava.
     
  20. RSLer

    RSLer Member+

    Sep 24, 2008
    Stansbury Park, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States


    I didn’t know where to put this. I chose this thread. Can someone provide some cliffs?
     
  21. 15 to 32

    15 to 32 Straw Hog

    Jul 1, 2008
    Salt Lake
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    this was the big cash cow reason to be an MLS owner in the short term. SUM was the marketing arm for USSF and a lot of the Mexican national team. It is where these MLS owners made their money while losing money in the league.

    This hurts the sell of RSL. Though, curiously, both Houston and Orlando sold right before this happened and I seriously doubt those buyers weren't aware of this happening.
     
  22. goobx1

    goobx1 Member+

    Jul 9, 2007
    Salt Lake
    So this will probably keep the RSL sale within the same range as the Orlando and Houston sales.
     
  23. kirsoccer

    kirsoccer BigSoccer Supporter

    Jun 29, 2007

    Is this really the case in practice? I know the model is that 75% of SUM profits flowed to the league which then had a formula by which total league profits flowed to investors (aka owners). However, there was always a lot of "grey" in this formula, and many have commented in the past that the league is holding a ton of assets, and those profits aren't heavily distributed. It's also been surmised that the coming loss of new franchise right fees is a much larger impact to MLS than anything else.

    Is there any insight into the impact SUM's US licensing rights actually has to the teams within MLS? SUM isn't going away, they will still have their hands in a lot of things directly related to MLS, and many things not at all related to MLS. I've never been able to find how significant a piece of the pie the US licensing rights are. I assume all of this is largely positioning for 2026.
     
    15 to 32 repped this.

Share This Page