

This $250,000 would be distributed equally to all MLS teams that have not signed a third Designated Player in the form of allocation money. Teams can pay a $250,000 "luxury tax" for the right to sign a third Designated Player.This means that both New York and Chivas USA will have two Designated Player spots for the 2010 season.

The New York Red Bulls will receive $70,000 in allocation money in return for the nullification of their 2007 trade with Chivas USA for an additional Designated Player spot.

However, prior to the start of the 2008 season, Johnson moved to Fulham of the Premier League, while following Dwayne De Rosario's signing by Toronto FC in January 2009, Ruiz was released by the club and left MLS to play for Olimpia Asunción. It was possible that the league would be required to renegotiate these players' contracts or consider them Designated Players. According to the rule, these players were grandfathered in for the 2007 season, and the exemption was extended after the 2007 season, with the league planning to review the issue at a future date. These players were Landon Donovan, Carlos Ruiz, and Eddie Johnson. Prior to the 2007 season, there were three players whose salary exceeded $400,000.This value was increased for the 2009 season to $415,000. For each Designated Player, $400,000 of his salary is charged to the salary cap and paid by the league, with any remaining salary being paid by the team's owner.The rule expires at the end of the 2009 season, and must be renewed then or allowed to lapse.As part of the 2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLS and the MLS Players' Union, the 2010 salary cap was $2.55 million, with an automatic five percent increase each year until the expiration of the agreement at the end of the 2014 season. The team salary cap was estimated to be around US$1.9 million in 2006, was $2.1 million in 2007, and was raised to $2.3 million for the 2008 season. Beckham was the first player signed under this rule, signing a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy with a guaranteed annual salary of $6.5 million. The rule is informally named after David Beckham, in anticipation of MLS teams signing lucrative deals with internationally recognized players, after Beckham entered into negotiations to join the league. As of December 2019, there have been 209 Designated Players in league history. The rule is one of two mechanisms by which MLS teams may exceed their salary cap, the other being allocation money. The rule, which was adopted ahead of the 2007 MLS season, enables teams to compete for star players in the international football market. The Designated Player Rule, nicknamed the Beckham Rule, allows Major League Soccer franchises to sign up to three players that would be considered outside their salary cap (either by offering the player higher wages or by paying a transfer fee for the player). David Beckham was the league's first Designated Player, with the rule being nicknamed the "Beckham Rule".
