At least from a practical team-building perspective, there is no real incentive for MLS teams to sell on their best players. They can only use up to $685K of the sale toward their allocation budget, and MLS pockets either 33 percent (non-Homegrown) or 25 percent (Homegrown) of the transfer fee in the event of a sale.
The clubs get the rest, but as far as actual team-building goes, the benefit is relatively slim. When you consider MLS prospects are generally devalued on the transfer market – the most expensive in history was the $5 million for Matt Miazga – MLS front offices aren’t exactly falling over themselves to sell their teenagers.
This is at the heart of the league’s most front-and-center standoff today. Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla, one of the most exciting young players in the league, apparently wants to leave Montreal. And the club doesn’t want to let him go.
From ESPNFC’s Peter O’Rourke: