USSoccerPlayers’ Steve Pastorino gets an advanced look at Real Salt Lake’s new stadium in Sandy, and takes us on a walk-through.
By Steve Pastorino
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (July 29, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- Every so often, I’ve entered a stadium for the first time and had my breath taken away by the expanse of green grass and the bountiful symmetry of colorful seats – all against the backdrop of blue sky or shimmering in contrast to a dark sky under giant floodlights.
This week, it happened for the first time in years - on a private tour of Real Salt Lake’s new stadium in Sandy, Utah.
With the team atop the standings for another week, the 2009 All Star Game in hand and Nick Rimando having backstopped six shutouts in the past nine games, RSL’s prospects seem as sky-high as the mountains that climb to 10,000 feet a short jog away from the team’s new home.
These are giddy times on the Wasatch Front.
Unlike most new MLS stadiums, local commuters can’t miss the wavy stadium’s rooflines on a daily basis from a major thoroughfare (I-15). It’s also on the route to many popular summer destinations such as the still-novel IKEA and Cabela’s, Brigham Young University, three National Parks and Las Vegas, too.
It takes more effort, however, via one of the most congested intersections in the suburban sprawl, to get to the site itself. It’s pigeonholed behind Jim’s Diner, across the street from Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller’s corporate office and a monstrous movie complex, and adjacent to a mobile home park.
But when you leave the crowded neighborhood behind and step across the concourse, no field has ever looked greener than this perfectly flat natural grass pitch. It’s truly an oasis in our brown desert of 95-degree July days. Red seats march upward and an assembled jigsaw puzzle of blue, white and yellow chairs spell out the words “Real Salt Lake” on the east side and the RSL badge on the north.
Above the field-level player’s entrance lie three of the stadium’s most unique features. First, exactly 96 “Center Circle” seats are available for a dizzying price of $7,500/year. In other words, welcome to MLS’ first $375/game seats, where Madison Square Garden meets Intermountain West. A club official told me about half have been sold, with part of the allure being an elite “bunker-style” club under the seats and reachable only by the same midfield tunnel that the players will use.
Second, a small platform has been built that owner Dave Checketts envisions as the place where a player like Fabio Cannavaro will accept some meaningful international trophy while surrounded by adoring fans. It’s a great touch, I think – although a bit presumptuous. Rather, I see Jamison Olave, surrounded by deep-pocketed corporate types and their kids, accepting the “Defensive Player of the Year” award after the season’s last game. Time will tell.
Finally, and most ordinary fans will never see it, Dave Checketts’ suite is extraordinary in its own right. It has two stories, with a conventional setup and indoor/outdoor seating on the top floor. A stairway leads to a private “basement” meeting room with porch access to the trophy platform and rear access to a tunnel for discrete stadium arrivals and departures. Perhaps Karl Malone and John Stockton will use this entrance when they attend their first game in Sandy.
Moving on, there are only nine rows of seats on the field’s southwest side before seats give way to a stadium club, where stadium founding partner Budweiser will no doubt sell many beers (3.2 alcohol level or regular, I don’t know). This takes the best elements of Pizza Hut Park’s club, but appears to be much larger and adds a spectacular patio less than 40 feet from the sideline.
So RSL has really taken care of the high-end patrons who are bankrolling the team’s $30-million-plus contribution to the $100-million stadium cost.
For everyone else, there are still plenty of highlights.
They’ve taken to calling the dramatic northwest entrance the “Spanish Steps,” for example. Sandy isn’t Rome – but it’s a majestic entrance that will remind visitors more of the Home Depot Center than the Eternal City.
The West Lawn has “Easter Egg Hunt” written all over it. Stretching down the hilly property from Main Street, the lawn will provide a graceful transition for fans arriving via the TRAX mass transit system, or from the dozen parking lots scattered around the community. Fans will cross through the Carnival Real interactive area, which will benefit from a transition to natural grass just like the team.
RSL’s “Loyalists” and “Rogue Cavaliers Brigade” fan clubs are expected into the south end zone seats beneath the Toyota Park-like stage. There are a just a few rows of seats – perfect for heckling goalkeepers, substitutes warming up and an occasional photographer.
Downstairs, RSL’s maple lockers are already in place. A comfortable locker room, team lounge, training room and hydrotherapy room await the players – all of which will be a significant upgrade from the team’s decades-old locker room under Rice-Eccles Stadium. Team offices, multiple locker rooms for visiting teams (and concert artists) a retail store and box office fill out the space.
It will be two years next week since Real Madrid, including David Beckham and Roberto Carlos, turned shovels in the stadium’s first groundbreaking. It took another six months to get the construction rolling, but since then the rate of construction has been astonishing.
Now, just two games remain for RSL at Rice-Eccles Stadium and you can be sure they’ll have enough of Sandy Stadium completed to celebrate its opening on October 9th vs. New York on ESPN2. Then, FC Dallas comes to Sandy for the season finale a week later before the venue goes dormant for winter.
Unless… and the first-place squad has every right to think this way… unless late October brings MLS playoff soccer to Salt Lake City for the first time ever.
Steve Pastorino spent a decade in the front office of the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake. Steve welcomes your feedback at pastorinosoccer@comcast.net.
Photos courtesy of RSL Communications.
