A draft is a process used in some countries and sports to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract, and no other team in the league may sign the player. The process is similar to round-robin item allocation.
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports and closed leagues. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion draft. Although how each league conducts them varies, and they vary from occasion to occasion, the system is usually something similar to the following:
The MLS SuperDraft is an annual college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada. It takes place in January and is used by teams to select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the league. The SuperDraft was first instituted in 2000, as a combination of the MLS College Draft, in which players having graduated from college were selected, and the MLS Supplemental Draft, in which all other players were chosen. The draft is divided into three rounds in which each club has a selection, the order of which is determined by a combination of the teams' playoff and regular season positions, with the last placed team getting the first pick.
Jonathan "Nate" Jaqua is an American former soccer player.
In Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the two top-tier professional soccer leagues in the United States, allocation money represents an amount of money that teams can use to sign players or allocate to their salaries in order to remain compliant with the leagues' salary caps.
The 2006 MLS Expansion Draft, held on November 17, 2006 was a special draft for MLS expansion team Toronto FC. Toronto FC selected 10 players from a pool of players from current MLS clubs.
The 1960 NFL expansion draft was the first National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, which eventually became known as the Dallas Cowboys, selected its initial players. The NFL awarded Dallas, Texas a franchise to compete for revenue with Lamar Hunt's Dallas Texans of the upstart American Football League. However, the Dallas expansion franchise was approved too late for it to participate in the 1960 NFL draft which had been held on November 30, 1959. Thus, Dallas is the only NFL expansion team to not have had the benefit of a college draft in its first year.
The 2008 MLS Expansion Draft took place on November 26, 2008, and was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Seattle Sounders FC. They made 10 selections from a pool of players from the other 14 MLS clubs.
The 2009 MLS Expansion Draft took place on November 25, 2009, and was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Philadelphia Union.
The 2010 MLS Expansion Draft took place on November 24, 2010, and was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Portland Timbers.
Jalil Anibaba is an American former professional soccer player who last played in Major League Soccer for Columbus Crew. He is currently a club ambassador for Nashville SC.
The 2011 MLS Expansion Draft was held on November 23, 2011 as a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Montreal Impact.
The Homegrown Player Rule is a Major League Soccer program that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first-team rosters. Before the creation of the rule in 2008, every player entering Major League Soccer would have to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS SuperDraft.
The 2014 MLS Expansion Draft was a draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC that took place between November 19 and December 10, 2014. The first two rounds of the draft were held to distribute players who were formerly contracted with Chivas USA, which was dissolved by the league in October 2014 shortly after the end of the 2014 MLS season.
The 2016 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. Atlanta United was selected to pick first by an "Expansion Priority Draft" conducted on October 16, 2016. Protected rosters are based on an MLS release from December 12, 2016.
The 2017 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Los Angeles FC held on December 12, 2017. Lists of protected rosters and draft-eligible players were released by MLS on December 10, 2017.
The 2018 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team FC Cincinnati that was held on December 11, 2018. Lists of protected rosters and draft-eligible players were released by MLS on December 10, 2018.
The 2020 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Austin FC that was held on December 15, 2020. The list of players available for selection was released on December 14, 2020.
The 2021 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team Charlotte FC that was held on December 14, 2021. The list of exposed players was revealed on December 13, 2021. The picks were made on December 14, 2021 at 7:00 PM ET with Charlotte selecting McKinze Gaines, Anton Walkes, Joseph Mora, Tristan Blackmon, and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi.
The 2022 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team St. Louis City SC that was held on November 11, 2022. The list of exposed players was revealed on November 10, 2022. The picks were made on November 11, 2022, at 6:30 PM ET with St. Louis City SC selecting Nicholas Gioacchini, Indiana Vassilev, Jonathan Bell, John Nelson, and Jake LaCava.
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