MLS ABCs: Expansion Draft

In a continuation of bringing new Sounders FC fans up to date on Major League Soccer, we’d like to update our MLS ABCs series on the Expansion Draft.

MLS provides new teams in the league the opportunity select current players from existing MLS Rosters to help build the new expansion team.

Sounders FC will conduct their Expansion Draft on November 26th. We have a Countdown Timer ticking the time until then…

The Details…

All 14 MLS teams are required to submit their lists of protected players to the League by 3 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 24. The League will distribute a list of the players available in the expansion draft to media that day. At the conclusion of the Expansion Draft, results will be posted on MLSnet.com and teams may resume trading. The expansion draft details are listed below:

2008 MLS Expansion Draft Rules

Senior Roster
• Teams may protect 11 players between their Senior and their Developmental Roster.
• If the Player’s contract expires at the end of 2008, he will still be considered part of the team’s Senior Roster.
• If a team protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player’s option. The team may renegotiate a new budget number for the player as in previous years.
• If a player retires, he will not be a part of the Senior Roster, but his team will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.

Developmental Roster
• Players on a team’s Developmental Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2008 season, will be part of the expansion draft.
• Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2008 season are automatically protected (teams do not have to protect them).
• If Seattle Sounders FC select a Developmental Player they must offer him a Senior Roster position and he must be on Seattle’s Senior Roster as of Roster Compliance Date.

International Players
• Teams are restricted in the number of international player(s) that they may make available per the table set forth below.
• For purposes of this expansion process, for U.S.-based teams, any non-domestic U.S. player would count as an International and for Toronto FC, any non-domestic U.S. player or non-domestic Canadian player would count as an International.

Designated Players
• Designated Players do not have to be protected unless the player has a no trade clause in which case he must be protected.

Maximum Player Loss
• Once a player has been claimed from a team’s non-protected roster, that team is eliminated from the expansion draft and may not lose any further players.

Right to Renegotiate
• Seattle will have the right to renegotiate a drafted player’s salary (either up or down) without having to place such player on waivers or giving his previous Team a right of first refusal.

Priority
• On the first day of the Discovery/Allocation Period, Seattle will have priority over players who played professionally in the USL First or Second Division in 2008, subject to another MLS team’s right of first refusal.

Rounds
• The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER PROTECTION REQUIREMENT TABLE:

Teams may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus 3, provided that if a team has 3 or less international players it may make available not more than 1.