Union get up to $600k in allocation money for eight draft picks

The Philadelphia Union announced their MLS SuperDraft trade with the Colorado Rapids, confirming reports that the team’s next eight picks in the annual draft now belong to the Rapids in exchange for a deal that could reach as high as $600,000 in allocation money.

The Union will receive a guaranteed $350,000 in general allocation money and up to $250,000 more in GAM if certain performance-based metrics are achieved. The Union will get $125,000 in 2025, $125,000 in 2026 and $100,000 in 2027.

The Rapids previously acquired the Union’s second round pick in this year’s draft in exchange for the MLS rights for goalkeeper Oliver Semmle.

The Rapids also gained the No. 8 and No. 68 picks in the upcoming draft.

The Union drafted the MLS rights to Stas Korzeniowski (No. 53), Zachary Bohane (No. 63) and Francesco Montali (No. 82) in last year’s SuperDraft. Korzeniowski and Bohane both returned to college and Montali played for Minnesota United 2 but the Union own their MLS rights through the end of 2025. The Union also still have the MLS rights for Stefan Stojanovic, who played for FC Tulsa in 2024 after spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons with Philadelphia Union II. He was drafted in the 2023 draft with the 57th pick. Holden Trent, who passed away unexpectedly in October, was drafted No. 28 overall and signed to a first team contract.

Trent was the first player drafted by the club since Matt Danilack was taken with the 77th pick in the 2018 draft.

Since 2019, 10 players have been drafted with picks acquired from the Philadelphia Union. Just three (Tommy McCabe, Ben Lundt and Anthony Markanich) have logged MLS minutes. Guaranteed compensation for the picks is a combined $375,000 but several were packaged for other things like the homegrown rights to Nathan Harriel, Julian Carranza’s initial loan from Inter Miami, the Damion Lowe trade with Inter Miami and Semmle’s rights. By far the weirdest trade of all was when the Union traded the No. 21 pick to DC United to move up to No. 17 in the MLS Allocation order.