i know it has been said that we don't have affailites in the A-League and the D-3 league but then why does http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=team&cont_id=94136A have charlotte, richmond, and virginia beach as our A-League affiliates and the Northern Virginia Royals and carolina dynamo as our D-3 affiliates?
Affiliates may be too strong a word to use now that there's no agreement between USL and MLS. However, there's an unwritten agreement between MLS clubs not to cross lines and invade other MLS' former affiliates. That will remain in place until either an agreement is made, or there's a decision to have a free market in the US. Currently, DCUnited uses Richmond, VA Beach, and Charlotte in the A-League and NoVA in D3. The team will be allowed to make agreements with these various teams to loan players down. However, because of the salary budget limitations, the reverse is more difficult. How could a team at max team salary bring in another player? At least one possible rule would be that a team would declare an MLS player inelligible for the remainder of a season - injured reserve. Any loaned player cannot be for more than the weekly salary of the injured reserve player.