Tito Avondale: Two Million Seven Hundred Ninety Thousand Dollars Per Point

La Cuenta

Scarves & Spikes published the numbers on May 15. I read them on my phone, standing in a grocery store parking lot, and I didn't move for four minutes.

$16,692,441.

That is the combined salary of Atlanta United's three designated players in 2026 — Miguel Almirón, Alexey Miranchuk, and Emmanuel Latte Lath. It is the second-highest DP spend in Major League Soccer, behind only Inter Miami's $41.85M. It buys a roster spot for the fifth-highest-paid individual in the league (Almirón, $7.87M), the thirteenth (Miranchuk, $5.09M), and the twenty-third (Latte Lath, $3.74M).

Eleven points from thirteen matches. 28th in the Supporters' Shield. A 3-2-8 record.

$2.79 million per point earned.

The worst spending efficiency in MLS. Not close to the worst. The worst.

El Precio

Let the names sit next to each other for a moment.

Hugo Cuypers plays for the Chicago Fire. His salary: $3.53M. His 2026 production: 11 goals, 1 assist. He costs less than half of what Almirón earns. He has more goals than Atlanta United's entire DP trio combined.

Petar Musa plays for FC Dallas. His salary: $2.88M. His 2026 production: 10 goals, 2 assists. He earns roughly a third of what United pays its three DPs. He has produced more goal contributions than Almirón and Latte Lath put together.

Sam Surridge plays for Nashville SC. Nashville leads the Supporters' Shield with 30 points from 13 matches — the same number of matches Atlanta has played. Nineteen more points. Surridge has 9 goals. Nashville's single DP outscores Atlanta's trio.

Thirteen matches each. Nashville: 30 points. Atlanta: 11. The gap is not a bad stretch. It is a different sport.

El Recibo

The individual lines on the bill are where this stops being an abstraction.

Almirón: $7.87M. Zero goals. Three assists — all in a single match against Philadelphia on May 2. Seven starts in thirteen team matches. A knee irritation cost him roughly two weeks in late April, and that context matters. But the context does not change the number. The prodigal son returned to Atlanta at nearly $8 million a year and has not scored.

I have written about what this club needs. I have called for patience with the Martino project, argued that the Open Cup was el camino, positioned the cup quarterfinal as the season-defining match. I was right about the stakes. I was wrong about who would win. And now the salary data arrives like a bill for a dinner where nothing was served.

Almirón's three-assist performance against Philadelphia was beautiful. It was also the only match in which he produced anything at all. One brilliant night out of seven starts is not a designated player's resume. It is a highlight reel with nothing around it.

Miranchuk: $5.09M. Five goals, two assists. Tied for second in MLS with 16 chances created since April 18. He is the captain, the most consistent attacker, and the only DP performing near his salary. But "near" is doing work in that sentence. Five goals and two assists for $5 million is competent, not transformative. And one player producing does not rescue a trio.

Latte Lath: $3.74M. Two goals, two assists. His consolation goal in the 4-1 Open Cup loss to Orlando — the 84th minute, everything already decided — is the image that stays. A good finish that arrived sixty minutes after it could have mattered. His Middlesbrough form justified the transfer fee. His 2026 form does not.

Combined DP goal contributions: 12. Third fewest among DP trios in MLS.

Twelve goal contributions. $16.69 million.

El Vacío

San Jose Earthquakes spend $546,000 per point. They are the most efficient team in MLS — roughly five times more efficient than Atlanta United. San Jose is not a model to aspire to. They are a cautionary comparison that should never include a club spending near the top of the league.

But it does. Because the spending is not the problem. The return is.

I wrote about the ghost at his own table in April — the idea that Martino was coaching a memory of the 2018 team with a roster that could not execute it. The spending data gives that argument a ledger. The front office invested $16.7M in three designated players to make the Martino restoration work. The Martino restoration produced 28th place and a quarterfinal exit where the club conceded four goals before halftime.

I wrote about twenty-three shots and nothing. The DP production crisis is that match in miniature — volume without conversion, investment without return.

Dex called the cup exit a funeral. He was not wrong. But funerals at least have closure. This is the invoice that arrives after.

The 4-1 Open Cup loss at Orlando on May 19 was the match the money was supposed to prepare them for. Martino deployed a back-five for the first time in 2026. It produced four first-half goals conceded. Jayden Hibbert started in goal, and his 24th-minute turnover led directly to the third. Seven lineup changes from Saturday's league match. The season's last meaningful match treated like a midweek rotation exercise.

La Sombra

Here is the cruelest part.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium — the fortress this club built its identity inside — hosts eight FIFA World Cup matches starting June 15. The world's biggest tournament, played on the pitch where the 17s built something that mattered. The training ground serves as Uzbekistan's base camp.

Atlanta United's next match is May 24 at Columbus. Then the World Cup break. When they return, it is six consecutive road matches — Nashville, Charlotte, New England, Philadelphia — stretching through mid-August. The first home match back: August 15 against the Red Bulls.

The stadium that was built as a monument to Atlanta's sporting ambition becomes someone else's stage. And the club that calls it home sits 28th in its own league, with $16.7M in designated player salary and no silverware path remaining.

I have defended this project. I called for patience. I positioned the cup as the test that would validate the process. The test returned a 4-nil halftime scoreline and five yellow cards from frustration.

The numbers are in. La cuenta is settled. $2.79 million per point earned, and the points stopped arriving weeks ago.

Columbus on Saturday. Then silence. Then six matches in stadiums that are not ours, for a season that has already told us what it is.

The 17s deserve a receipt that looks different than this one.