This morning, the Vancouver Whitecaps announced that they had sent $277,500 in Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) to the Colorado Rapids, in exchange for $185,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM). You might be sitting there and thinking “wait…what!”. Does this mean that the Caps essentially gave $92,500 to the Rapids? Not exactly. To understand this trade, we need to explain the difference between GAM and TAM, with regards to how it is used and how much teams acquire.
While the MLS Roster Rules are confusing, they do try to outline the different uses for each of the two types of Garber Bucks©.