2009 MLS Roster Changes

In his 2008 State of the League address, Don Garber announced that in 2009 teams will be able to have between 18 and 20 senior roster spots (today it's 18.) Counteracting this is a reduction of developmental spots from ten to just four, none of which count against the salary cap. He then went on to say:

With fewer developmental players on a given roster, the reserve league has been eliminated, with the savings in salary expected to be applied to other members of the roster, as well as each team's youth academy.

The only problem with this is that developmental players don't count against the current salary cap. So there's really no way to share this money with other members of the roster, unless some of this money somehow ends up in a gym bag in the bottom of someone's locker, you know -- by mistake.

So I guess this means that the reserve league money is being allocated towards the teams' youth setups. This combined with the fact that he said he would hand the MLS Cup trophy to Guillermo Barros Schelotto but gave it to Frankie Hejduk makes me wonder if someone spiked his punch during MLS Cup weekend...