With MLS’ 16th and latest team coming on board next season, the Philadelphia Union will have their expansion draft next Wednesday.

It seems the rules for these things change almost every time around, which isn’t shocking; the NFL is the same way. After the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers quickly started putting beatings on people in short order, the NFL changed the rules and the reincarnated Cleveland Browns didn’t get so lucky. So let’s see the rules the Union will be working with.

They’ll pick the core of their team in a 10-round draft. Clubs will have a half-day trade window on Monday until noon; every team has to turn in their list of players they want to protect by 3 p.m. on Monday as well.

We in the Fourth Estate will get the list of available, ie, unprotected players. Teams protect 11 players, and the Union can’t claim more than one player from any team, so five clubs won’t lose anybody.

The Union _ love those jerseys, BTW fellas _open on March 25 (9:30 p.m., ESPN2/Deportes) against last year’s expansion success story, Seattle. Think Philadelphia will make out as well as the playoff-bound, U.S. Open Cup-champion Sounders, who got Brad Evans, Nate Jaqua and James Riley.

HERE ARE THE RULES

2009 MLS Expansion Draft Rules

Senior Roster

• Teams may protect 11 players between their Senior and their Developmental Roster.

• If the Player’s contract expires at the end of 2009, he will still be considered part of the Team’s Senior Roster.

• If a Team protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player’s option. It may renegotiate a new budget number for the player as in previous years.

• If a player retires, he will not be a part of the Senior Roster, but his Team will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.

Developmental Roster

• Players on a Team’s Developmental Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2009 season and Home Grown Players, will be part of the expansion draft.

• Generation adidas players (who have not been graduated at the end of the 2009 season) and Home Grown players are automatically protected (teams do not have to use a protected slot on them)If Philadelphia selects a Developmental Player it must offer him a Senior Roster position and he must be on Philadelphia’s Senior Roster as of Roster Compliance Date.

International Players

• Teams are restricted in the number of International player(s) that they may make available per the table set forth below.

• For purposes of this expansion process, for US-based teams, any non-domestic US player would count as an International and for Toronto FC, any non-domestic US player or non-domestic Canadian player would count as an International.

Designated Players

• Designated Players do not have to be protected unless the player has a no trade clause in which case he must be protected.

Maximum Player Loss

• Once a player has been claimed from a Team’s non-protected roster, that team is eliminated from the expansion draft and may not lose any further players.

Right to Renegotiate

• Philadelphia will have the right to renegotiate a drafted player’s salary (either up or down) without having to place such player on waivers or giving his previous Team a right of first refusal.

Priority

• On the first day of the Discovery/Allocation Period, Philadelphia will have priority over players who played professionally in the USL First or Second Division in 2009, subject to another MLS team’s right of first refusal.

Rounds

• The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER PROTECTION REQUIREMENT TABLE:

• Teams may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus 3, provided that if a team has 3 or less international players it may make available not more than 1.