The Expansion Draft

The league grows. In 1998, two brand-new clubs join the NSL — Biscayne FC and Windy City FC — and they build their first squads through a one-time expansion draft. That means every existing club, including yours, stands to lose players.

This happens once, during the offseason heading into the 1998 season. Here’s how to come through it with your core intact.

Protecting your players

Ahead of the draft, each existing club protects nine players. Everyone you don’t protect is exposed and can be taken by the new clubs.

• Toggle protection on the players you most want to keep, or
• Use auto-protect to shield your best players automatically, then adjust from there.

Choose your nine carefully — they’re the players you’re guaranteed to keep.

How the draft plays out

Once protections are set, the two expansion clubs build their rosters from the exposed pool:

• They alternate picks, taking twelve players each — twenty-four in all.
• No club loses more than three players. As soon as three of your exposed players have been taken, the rest of your squad is safe, protected or not.

Any player drafted by an expansion club joins them on a contract of at least two years.

Surviving the expansion

You can’t protect everyone, but the rules limit the damage — three players lost, at most.

Protect smart, not just big

Your nine protected slots should cover more than your biggest names. Shield the players who’d be hardest to replace — your best goalkeeper, key men at thin positions, and promising youngsters worth developing. Depth you can rebuild through the draft and free agency; irreplaceable talent you cannot.

After the expansion draft, the offseason continues as normal into the 1998 season — now with twelve clubs competing for the Founders Cup.