Chicago Fire FC has 1,003,353 in 2026 General Allocation Money (GAM) as of Feb 20 #cf97 #VamosFire pic.twitter.com/dmnDyU7YBC— Joe Chatz (@JoeChatz) March 6, 2026
GAM number released 3-6. Current (2-20) figure is $1.00 million (vs $1.07 estimate). Frankly, really, really surprised to be that close. Lucky!
Given the passage of time and recent “Lewy or #10?” comments, it is probably appropriate to update this thread. Available Fire GAM figure announced on 3-2 was (say) $1million. A new DP acquisition would utilize the following resources- new DP budget charge $803k plus cost of untagging U22-Radojevic (est $807k less $150k) would be $657k for an annual total of $1,460k. Cost for remaining second half of year would be only $730k ( less than $1 million). New backup ST??
Magic wand, a DP like Griezmann that can play CAM, Winger, & Striker. Hold onto remaining GAM for 2027
The day the Salaries are released is one of my favorite days each MLS season, although I am not sure why it is..
Thoughts (at this point of the season) on the salaries vs performance/value... Bamba needs to get back to playing/contributing/DP'ing like his first 4 or 5 games with the club, or he becomes 'a budget problem'. Cuypers is the 30th highest paid player in the league and only 5 or 6 that are higher would consider are 'clearly better'. Nice to finally have a DP playing like a DP. Zinckernagel and Elliott are solid examples of "TAM players"...clear impact players. Lod & Saletros...jury is still out...Lod clearly has quality but has looked lost, and Saletros is doing solid yoeman's work but can't seem to find 'sync' with Davilla or our CBs. Davilla, Mbokazi, Barroso, Radojevic, Dithejane...all 'good investments', but their collective immature mistakes continue to sting us. Dje must improve his defensive third. Gutman, Waterman, MHS solid MLS mid-roster quality. Brady seems great value...or 'cheap'...20th highest paid keeper, 15th makes 2x, 10th makes 2.5x. Improvement in distribution and PKs would likely double his salary. Oregel, Pineda, & Dean better depth than we have had in quite a while at very reasonable prices.
The thing that sticks out for me is just the combo of Lod, Saletros, and Davilla all in a row and relatively expensive. It’s like a big, gaping, hole in our midfield and budget.
For all he ends up playing (steadily too for the most part) when he should be a simple depth piece...Dean is a steal at that price compared to many higher salaries on the team.
Add to it the expensive and injured Franco… Makes me think we should try Bamba as one of the dual 8s…gotta find a way to make better use of him/get more out of him ………………Cuypers …MHS……..……………...Zinck ………Bamba…..Saletros ……………….Davilla Gutman..TLB…Elliot…Barroso …….………….Brady
Always interesting. Will take some to digest this. Old Coach- Initial takeaway. Big miss on our cap hit spreadsheet on Franco. Not about $700,000 for his guaranteed compensation as estimated but actually over $1,300,000. Oh, I remember- for entertainment purposes only.
Not questioning his potential value to team or his salary. Only noting that actual total guaranteed compensation is substantially different from figure used in our spreadsheet and still the net remaining GAM estimate arrived at was dead-on. Huh?? How did this happen? Will try to check it out.
No. Not the answer. The spreadsheet acquisition fee of $1,000,000 used represents the latest estimate at the time. Reducing this fee all the way to zero would not explain the wide variance. As you are well aware, the fee is not a part of total player compensation.
Previously the guesstimate sheet had $1mil for the fee (amortized over 2.5yrs) and a salary of $697k, resulting in a cap hit of 1.1m. No clue what the fee dropped to, but I seem to recall reading rumors of less than half...so a 1.2 base still makes this "low TAM". And to his longer term, if he returns to form the contract provides us good value and 'upside' to the market.
Agree with you but the point is the wide variance between the 697k and the 1,307k shown on the salary report.
Possible explanation. The fact that Franco is on injury list could mean his salary budget charge is reduced. Due to the complexity of the process and the large number of unknowns, it may not be possible to find the answer.
In addition to Franco, I noticed two other notable fairly significant variances. Oregel received a greater than expected increase and Pineda’s salary was unexpectedly reduced. They basically offset so net impact was minimal. On a different subject, Fire actual real$ payroll declined to middle of MLS pack but will zoom back up the list when Lewy is signed. Optimism!
Very interesting. What/Who is the source? Reliable? Assume it is. Will review and ask questions. (you know me)
Initial review- In addition to my earlier comments about salary level of Franco from previous posts, I note that cap hit figures shown for Elliott, Lod and Zinck are each lower than expected considering the guaranteed compensation of each. ( Zinck is substantially lower, other two moderately lower.) Any explanation for this variation from normal practice? Also, what is meant by “ estimated cap remaining $2,898,501” ?
Haven't 'deep dived' yet, just thought I'd share that someone setup a data crawler that is public....at first glance it's 'the data', just not clear if the query pulls all the 'factors'
Really glad you found it. Can be very useful going forward once we figure it out. Is there a contact who could answer questions about it?