MLS Designated players wages

So in the MLS rules section, it says: "Designated players only count £4K per week towards the salary cap as this is the maximum wage a Senior player can get"; so I signed Joe Lewis on £24K a week on a Designated player contract. Problem is, all of this seems to have gone on to my budget, rather than just £4K, meaning I'm now £17K per week in the red on my wage budget, which is obviously not ideal. What's the deal with this, is it a bug? Cheers.

Designated Players only count a certain amount (around $400k per year, if I recall) against the team salary, not the wage budget. Basically, you have two budgets: the league budget (salary cap) and team budget (wage budget.)

So, if the salaray cap is set at $2.6 million per year, the DP counts as $400k towards the cap, regardless of how much more he's actually making.

The wage budget, however, is the amount that your team is willing to spend on total salaries for the team. In this case, the actual number may be something like $5 million. Needless to say, if you sign a DP for $4 million per year or so, you'll likely go over this amount.

Also, you can try adjusting your budget in the board interaction screen. You may be able to shift your transfer budget or allocation money towards your wage budget, though I think some people were running into an issue with the allocation part. Hope this helps!

Ah ok - so I'm exceeding the team budget then, my club's Sporting Kansas City so I guess it makes sense that they're not in the same financial league as the Red Bulls or Galaxy. Thanks for clearing that up pal.