Photo credit: Arturo Pardavila III (Creative Commons license)

When it was announced on May 21, 2013 that Major League Soccer (MLS) had granted a franchise in New York City — to be owned by Manchester City conglomorate City Football Group (CFG) and the New York Yankees, no less — high expectations were immediately placed on the nascent NYCFC.

Part of the expectations came from the simple fact that the club would be playing in the largest market in the league, which was very much untapped despite the presence of the New York Red Bulls across the Hudson River. Similarly, the success of the Red Bulls — who have made every iteration of the MLS Cup Playoffs, finishing at or near the top of the Eastern Conference and ultimately winning the Supporters’ Shield in 2013 — added the weight of a certain level of on-field performance to the new fan base’s expectations.

But because of the size of the market, as well as the fact that CFG and the Yankees represented what was certainly among the wealthiest ownership groups in the league, there was an added burden — the team was expected to spend as big as was possible under the confines of the restrictive MLS salary cap. That meant three Designated Players (DPs), utilizing the new allocation money systems to the fullest and stocking up on premier domestic talent.

The club’s first signing was no slouch, as World Cup winner and Spanish international David Villa would mark the club’s opening epoch — ultimately providing the club with their first beloved captain. Controversies aside, the signings of Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo (midway through the year) ticked the big-name box and placed a firm check next to the “three DPs” requirement. Additionally, the club used the new Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) clause to bring in a young U.S. men’s national team member over the usual DP threshold in Mix Diskerud. While the latter didn’t quite pan out — at all — the big names many expected were present in abundance.

With CFG aware of the struggles traditionally encountered by foreign ownership and foreign coaches in MLS, the club reached out to a proven winner to lead from the bench in year one, agreeing to terms with Jason Kreis, winner of the 2009 MLS Cup with Real Salt Lake, as the club’s first head coach. Kreis filled the remainder of his roster with a mixture of his RSL boys from his previous gig, some foreign internationals and loans scouted out by CFG, and a few unknown domestics such as RJ Allen and Kwadwo Poku.

Year one didn’t go as planned for NYCFC, finishing outside of the playoffs with 37 points. Kreis was fired, Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira was brought in and behind the scenes CFG tinkered and toyed with their USA-based club’s building philosophy. The changes in construction methodology are worth examining, as NYCFC from 2016 forward has been a regular contending force near the top of the league. So what changed?

2015

We begin in the club’s inaugural season. The annual salary information available through the MLS Players Association enables us to look and paint a clear picture of the philosophy that went into building NYCFC’s first team in year one.

The immediate item of note is the number of players in the low-end range (