Real Salt Lake
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| Year founded | 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Major League Soccer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | RSL, Real | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT |
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| Coach |  John Ellinger, 2005— |
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| Owner | Dave Checketts |
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| First Game MetroStars 0–0 Real Salt Lake (Giants Stadium; April 2, 2005) |
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| Largest Win Real Salt Lake 3–0 FC Dallas (Rice-Eccles Stadium; July 23, 2005) Los Angeles Galaxy 0–3 Real Salt Lake (Home Depot Center; May 13, 2006) Colorado Rapids 1–4 Real Salt Lake (INVESCO Field; August 9, 2006) |
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| Worst Defeat Red Bull New York 6–0 Real Salt Lake (Giants Stadium; August 26, 2006) |
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| All-time Top Scorer Jason Kreis (17) |
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| Supporter Groups Loyalists, Rogue Cavaliers Brigade, Jesters |
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| MLS Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| US Open Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Real Salt Lake is a professional soccer club based in Salt Lake City, Utah that began playing in Major League Soccer in 2005. The team currently plays its home games at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The word real in the team's name is taken from the Spanish word real. Real, as it is used in Real Salt Lake, and in the names of certain Spanish soccer clubs such as Real Madrid, is roughly pronounced ray-all, with the accent on the al. When translating the Spanish word real into English, it has more than one meaning. In Spanish, the word real is used to mean real, as in real life (la vida real); also, it is used to mean royal, as in royal family (familia real). This distinction notwithstanding, the two meanings are still closely connected. Things spoken of in Spanish as real carry with them a slight feeling of royal, and vice versa.
In the case of the names of football clubs, real is used to mean royal. This name is bestowed on a number of clubs that play in Spain's La Liga, as well as Real España of Honduras, by the Spanish crown. While this is true, it is also true that a number of other clubs around the world with no connection to Spanish royalty are also named Real.
The Salt Lake City club's owner, Dave Checketts, desired to attach his team to a successful soccer club, Real Madrid, as well as to develop a brand that was clearly associated with 'soccer', leading to the choice of name. The team's uniform and colors were inspired by those of the Spanish national team.
The team's name was initially met with derision and pessimism among the fan community. Many fans thought the name should more accurately reflect the Salt Lake area. In the past year the criticism from local fans and the media has waned, and the club has instituted a formal relationship with Real Madrid that brings it numerous advantages.
Currently the club has three fan clubs known as The Loyalists, the Rogue Cavaliers Brigade (RCB) and The Jesters.
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[edit] History
Their first head coach is John Ellinger, former coach of the Under-17 United States national team and the head of USSF's Bradenton Academy.
Salt Lake City was formerly home to the USL Second Division's Utah Blitzz, which folded about the time Real Salt Lake formed. The Blitzz had won the USLSD's championship in their final year of existence. Blitzz head coach Chris Agnello was hired as an assistant coach for Real Salt Lake, but left after their inaugural season.
In 2005, the Rocky Mountain Cup was created in an effort to create some sort of rivalry right off the bat for the new franchise. The Cup goes to the team that wins the season series between the Colorado Rapids and RSL. The Colorado Rapids claimed the Rocky Mountain Cup in that inaugural season by winning the series 3–1. Even with the added excitement of the Cup competition, RSL's major rival quickly became fellow expansion team C.D. Chivas USA. This was due to the fiercely competitive physical play between the two teams (and perhaps also the fact that they both joined in the same year). On November 17, 2006, XanGo announced a multi-million dollar deal to be advertised on the front of RSL's jersey.
Nearly a month later, RSL announced their most high profile acquisition in the club's short history - the signing of the American phenomenon Freddy Adu - as well as the rights to GK Nick Rimando (rights subsequently traded to Red Bull New York) from D.C. United in exchange for Salt Lake's goalie Jay Nolly, a partial draft allocation, future considerations and a draft pick.
[edit] Stadium issues
In 2005 a soccer-specific stadium for the team was approved for Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City. However, funding for the stadium was still hard to come by. A vote in early 2006 struck down a funding proposal for the stadium. However, Tom Dolan, the mayor of Sandy, said that he would not give up on his fight to approve the proposal in Sandy. The funding plan was revised, but was struck down later in 2006 over disagreements in the appropriation of millions of hotel-tax dollars for a financially unproven sports franchise. The proposal for Sandy was declared "dead" by Checketts at that point, putting the team's future in doubt. Dave Checketts said that he wanted the team to remain in Utah, but would sell it if a proposal was not put forward by August 12, 2006.
Parties from several cities, including Rochester, New York [1] and Saint Louis, Missouri, expressed interest in purchasing the franchise and moving it. Other stadium sites in the area were also proposed, including the Utah State Fairgrounds in Salt Lake, and the tiny town of Vineyard, just west of Provo. Finally, on the very day Checketts had set as a deadline to have a stadium plan in place or decide to sell the team, and after months of up and down discussions with local municipalities, county, and state officials and a change in the funding structure, a tacit agreement between Checkets, Sandy City, and Salt Lake County was put in place, and Real Salt Lake announced that they would move forward with the construction of the Sandy Stadium [2]. The groundbreaking, coinciding with the Xango Cup, Real's match against international power Real Madrid, took place that afternoon featuring elected leaders, team officials, as well as the entire rosters of both Real Salt Lake and Real Madrid. On August 15, the deal was officially approved by the Salt Lake County Council.[3]
The stadium plan encountered difficulties however after the Debt Review Committee of Salt Lake County voted against the stadium proposal 4-0 on January 26, 2007 citing what they saw as Real Salt Lake's financial inviability as the reasoning behind the lack of support. County mayor Corron concurred with the DRC and the stadium plan was effectively killed on January 29, 2007. In response Real Salt Lake's owner announced the team would be sold and likely move out of the Salt Lake area after the 2007 season.[4]
On January 30, 2007, local private business expressed serious interest in keeping the team in Utah. Anderson Geneva, in response to the stadium rejection, offered the club 30 acres of land on which to build their stadium and multi use center, and offered the land for free. The land was estimated to be worth US$10 million.
The Sandy Stadium proposal is not completely dead, however: a new stadium proposal was made on February 2, which would divert 15 percent, roughly $2 million a year, of the county's hotel taxes to the stadium project beginning in July until 2017. [5] Such a deal would have to be made by February 9, or the deal is completely off. [6]. The bill has been passed by the State Senate, and is now awaiting State Assembly approval. [7]
As of February 8, 2007, after Governor Huntsman made a move that would allow the team to remain in Salt Lake County: the Utah House approved House bill 1SHB38, by a 48-24 margin, effectively approving $35 million towards the development of a world-class sports and entertainment venue which will serve as the home of Real Salt Lake. The governor is expected to sign the bill.[8]
As of February 9th, 2007, Sandy City, along with the state of Utah and representatives of the team, have finally come to an agreement regarding the placement of the Real stadium. The deal was shot down about a week prior to this agreement by the Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon saying it was too risky. However, Utah's governor, Jon Huntsman, Jr. said that soccer is here to stay. The $110 million dollar stadium will be built in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
[edit] Real Madrid and youth academy
As of September of the 2006 season, Real Salt Lake and Real Madrid have signed a 10-year co-operative agreement. Among the provisions of the deal are a biennial friendly match between the two teams to take place in Salt Lake City, annual February training for RSL at the Real Madrid practice facility in Spain, and, perhaps most importantly, the creation of a $25 million elite youth acacemy in SLC that will train up to 200 players from ages 12 to 18.[9] The academy, a co-operative project for which Real Madrid will pay half the cost, will include academic facilities and dormitory housing, arguably becoming the first true soccer "youth system" in MLS, along with the Red Bull Academy effort of Red Bull New York. In this sense, it is part of a growing league-wide trend toward the emphasis of youth development, a trend which has been encouraged by the main office and jump-started by the league's decision to allow individual teams to maintain rights to the products of potential youth development systems. Rossetti's California office is the architecture firm working on the design of the new stadium.
[edit] Logo
There currently exists at least 3 different versions of the RSL logo. 2 of the logos contain the words Real Salt Lake across and appear to most to be redudant. The logo that seems most popular with the local public is the seldom used RSL circular crown logo with the crown atop. The apparent logic behind the numerous logo versions is for fans to first grow accustomed to the club's name Real Salt Lake and than move to the abbreviated and more symbolic 'RSL' circular logo.
[edit] Rocky Mountain Cup
With Major League Soccer's expansion in 2005, Real Salt Lake became the second team in the Rocky Mountain region and the Colorado Rapids' closest neighbor. The supporters of the two clubs created a competition between the two sides to foster and memorialize this budding rivalry. Colorado won the Rocky Mountain Cup in its inaugural year, 9 points to 3. Colorado successfully defended the Cup in 2006 by a margin of 7 points to 4.
[edit] Television and radio
RSL's televised matches appear on FSN Utah and KSL. Bill Riley does KSL's play-by-play.
Radio broadcasts are on KALL(English) and KSGO "La Bonita" (in Spanish). Ryan Hatch does English play-by-play while Wayne Scholes does color. Luis Rivas does the Spanish play-by-play while Nelson Moran does color.
[edit] Stadium
- Rice-Eccles Stadium (2005–current)
- Sandy Stadium (2008, planned opening)
[edit] Current squad
As of March 10, 2007
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† Unsigned player
[edit] Changes for the 2007 MLS Season
In
- Freddy Adu Traded from D.C.
- Kyle Brown Traded from New England
- Jason Kreis Drafted in the expansion draft by Toronto, subsequently traded back to Salt Lake
- Chris Lancos Free transfer from FC Kaiserslautern of the German Second Bundesliga
- Kyle Reynish Signed as draft pick
- Nick Rimando Traded from D.C., subsequently traded to Red Bull New York, subsequently traded back to Salt Lake
Luis Tejada Transferred from Plaza Amador of the Panamanian first division- Landon Smith Transferred from Manchester United of the EPL
Out
- Adam Acosta Released by team
- Jacob Besagno Released by team
- Scott Garlick Retired
- Brian Gil Released by team
Cameron Knowles Released by team- Jay Nolly Traded to D.C.
- Kevin Novak Released by team
Douglas Sequeira Transferred to Tromso of the Norwegian Tippeligaen- Jafet Soto Released by team
- Seth Trembly Released by team
[edit] Notable players
- Freddy Adu (2007—)
- Jeff Cunningham (2006—)
- Scott Garlick (2006)
- Chris Klein (2006—)
- Jason Kreis (2005—)
- Clint Mathis (2005)
- Eddie Pope (2005—)
- Jafet Soto (2006—)
Andy Williams (2005—)- Luis Tejada (2007—)
- Landon Smith (2005—)
[edit] Head coaches
- John Ellinger (2005—)
[edit] Team records
- Games: Andy Williams, 55
- Goals: Jason Kreis, 17
- Assists: Jeff Cunningham, 11
- Shutouts: D.J. Countess and Scott Garlick, 4
- Single Season Goals: Jeff Cunningham, 16 (2006)
- Single Season Assists: Jeff Cunningham, 11 (2006)
MLS regular season only, through 2006 season
[edit] Year-by-year
| Year | Reg. Season | Playoffs | Open Cup |
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| 2005 | 5th, West | Did not qualify | Round of 32 |
| 2006 | 6th, West | Did not qualify | Round of 16 |
[edit] Average attendance
regular season/playoffs
- 2005: 18,037/missed playoffs
- 2006: 16,366/missed playoffs
[edit] References
- ^ Rhinos confirm talk with MLS club in Utah
- ^ Real Salt Lake joined by Real Madrid Saturday at 12:00 noon to break ground on Sandy stadium site
- ^ KUTV news - Soccer stadium finally a ReALity
- ^ KSL Newsradio: Soccer stadium deal is dead
- ^ Stadium plan: It's ba-a-ack!
- ^ Stadium deal due by Friday — or else
- ^ Senate paves way for a Sandy stadium
- ^ Utah House approves stadium funds
- ^ Salt Lake Tribune article announcing the RSL-RM deal
[edit] Official Sponsor
[edit] External links
- Real Salt Lake.com
- rslstadium.com - official Sandy stadium preview Website
- Real Salt Lake News and Information
- Rocky Mountain Cup Website
- The Loyalists Supporters Club
- The RCB Supporters Club
- The Unofficial RSL Audio Archive
- Official Real Salt Lake board, courtesy of BigSoccer
- Are You Loyal? - Real Salt Lake Podcast and Blog
- The RSLFM Report - RSL News, Information & Commentary
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Eastern Conference |
Western Conference |
| Former teams | On hiatus |
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| Miami Fusion | Tampa Bay Mutiny | San Jose Earthquakes |
| Miscellaneous | |
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MLS Cup | All-Star Game | SuperLiga | USSF | CSA | Central Division | U.S. Open Cup |
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