Money To Burn

Last night after posting about the Jack Jewsbury trade, someone posted about the allocation money we were getting for Jewsbury. During my response I realized that along with explaining the allocation money process it'd be interesting to look at how much money KC had available under the cap. Well Gooch over at the Star beat me to both punches in the same post last night. With his explanation of the allocation process using the MLS rules I'm not sure I need to explain it more. If you feel differently, let me know and I'll work on breaking it down more.

But in regards to the salary cap space that the team has I want to look further into that. With the departure of Jimmy Conrad ($232,750), Josh Wolff ($220,004), Zoltan Hercegfalvi ($168,000), Jack Jewsbury ($145,000), Sunil Chhetri ($100,008), Nikos Kounenakis ($70,000), Jamar Beasley ($40,000), Aaron Hohlbein ($40,000), and Jonathan Leathers ($40,000), the Wizards have created $1,055,762 in cap space to use this season, and that's before taking into account how much money KC was under the cap last year.

To break down how much space KC still has to work with let's take a look at the players that have come in. Omar Bravo as a designated player will count $335,000 against the cap. There's also been the signings of Kevin Ellis, Mike Jones, Scott Lorenz, CJ Sapong, and Luke Sassano. Sapong and Sassano seem the most likely to be making the most money (Sassano made $40,000 last year). Those two are likely making in the $40,000 to $50,000 range most likely. The other three are likely making either the senior roster minimum of $40,000 or possibly the $32,600 limit for players 25-30 on this year's roster (see the roster rules here). I'd think Ellis and Jones are potentially in the later group, maybe Lorenz as well based on comments that he's on an apprentice contract. So when it comes to new players, KC hasn't added a whole lot in total salary outside of Bravo, with those other five players KC has probably added around or less than $200,000 to the cap. So with those six players there's about $520,762 left to spend.

But before we think we have that remaining for signings there's a little more to remember as well. First, Chance Myers and Roger Espinoza have both graduated from the Generation Adidas program, meaning their salaries now both count against the cap. Meaning Espinoza's $75,000 and Myers' $70,000 both count against the cap. That leaves $375,762 left to spend on new players.

Again we have to wait though for other reasons. First, last year when KC traded for Shavar Thomas, there was word that Philadelphia was picking up a good chunk of Thomas' salary for the season. We don't know what amount that was, but Thomas' salary was $145,000 last year. So let's say we have to add another $100,000 for Thomas' salary fully being under KC this year. Finally, the other thing to remember is that Michael Harrington has signed a new contract. Harrington made $78,516 last year. We can be safe to assume that he's making over $100,000 now. Add that $100,000 plus for Thomas and Harrington and we're probably closer to about $250,000 or so left from the amount that was made available with all the players that left.

I'm sure my numbers aren't anywhere close to exact, but when you look at it, the $1 million plus in camp space is already going to use in other places for the team currently, but there is still room under the cap for some good signings, plus with the allocation money it can be used to help pay down a salary to max salary levels.