2010 Major League Soccer Season - Changes From 2009

Changes From 2009

• The players' union and league passed a new collective bargaining agreement that adjusted the players' contracts.
• The Philadelphia Union joined the league as its 16th club and is playing in the Eastern Conference. Their first two home games of the season – against D.C. United April 10 and FC Dallas on May 15 – were played at Lincoln Financial Field while their permanent home, PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, opened with a game against Seattle Sounders FC on June 27.
• A natural grass field replaces the FieldTurf surface at Toronto FC's BMO Field.
• The New York Red Bulls began play in their new stadium Red Bull Arena, defeating the Chicago Fire in the first MLS match played there on March 27 by the score of 1–0.
• Adidas is providing their Jabulani match ball with MLS colors of blue and green for the season, as well as new referee kits – the same ones that were used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
• New Designated Player Rules were agreed upon early in the season:
  • Teams can sign two Designated Players, up from one under the previous rules, and pay a "luxury tax" of $250,000 for the right to sign a third Designated Player. The $250,000 would be distributed evenly to all MLS teams that have not signed a third Designated Player in the form of allocation money.
  • Each Designated Player counts as $335,000 for the salary cap, down from $415,000 under the previous agreement, and only counts as half that amount if the player is signed during the middle of the season. Teams can use allocation money to reduce the salary cap value of a Designated Player.
  • Teams are no longer allowed to trade for additional Designated Player spots, so the New York Red Bulls will receive $70,000 of allocation money in exchange for effectively nullifying their earlier trade with Chivas USA for a second Designated Player spot.
  • Teams who have a Designated Player transfer out of the country during the MLS season will recoup a portion of the money spent on the Designated Player.
  • Landon Donovan is no longer grandfathered into the agreement, and must be counted as a Designated Player.
  • Unlike the previous Designated Player agreement, which was set to expire after three seasons, this agreement has no set expiration date.
  • The new Designated Player rule resulted in an explosion of DP signings in 2010, with the league boasting 13 Designated Players at the conclusion of the regular season (Omar Bravo signed with Kansas City in the summer of 2010 but remained with his previous club Guadalajara for the remainder of the season).