Steve Goff, the Soccer Insider, is reporting that Valencia is the leading candidate for the All-Star Game opponent on July 29th at Rio Tinto Stadium. He also indicates that a decision is expected next week.

Not quite the top-notch opponent that had talked about in Milan, Inter, Real Madrid, etc. The team is still a quality side and features star striker, David Villa. They currently sit tied for 5th in La Liga.

The team also raised eyebrows in recent weeks for failing to pay their players. This move is likely done in order to help raise some cash to help the team meet their financial obligations.

This may look familiar, but this video of the first Real Salt Lake goal at Rio Tinto Stadium that has been floating around the blog-o-sphere has officially been turned into a season ticket TV spot. Enjoy:

Listeners Can Win Chance to Attend Closed-Door Event by Tuning into “Bill and Spence” on KALL 700 Sports Tuesday through Thursday

Amenities you’ll love:

• Grass: this is the way that soccer was meant to be played.
• Sound system: this stadium was designed at least in part with sound in mind. Remember that a key secondary use of the stadium will be concerts. The roof is partially in place for acoustics. Having heard music played on it myself, I can tell you that it sounds sweet!
• Video board: the Daktronics video board is also amazing. The main center screen will have the most vivid high-def replay’s that you have ever seen. The smaller video screen will keep you informed with stats and info.
• Lights: there is no comparison to Rice Eccles stadium. It’s nearly like watching a game in daylight. I look forward to fewer blurry pictures as a result.
• Seatbacks: I, for one, look forward to not having to haul in my own stadium seat to the game.
• Concessions: The prices may be steep, but the quality of the food is a big upgrade.
• Views: Both the views of the field, and the views of the mountains are tremendous.
• It’s our home: No more football lines.
• Beer: ‘Nuf said.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

On what the opening of Rio Tinto means to the team: To the team, it’s their home and their lockerroom. This has a big impact. The players are excited. In fact, we are set to do a walk-through with them and their spouses, and several have mentioned that they are excited about this.

On what the opening of Rio Tinto means to the league: It’s another step to credibility and to accomplishing their business model. It’s another step to being successful.

On the stadium being a recruiting tool: It will help alot with prospective players, but we have found it very helpful with prospective season ticket holders. The best tool we have is to have them come down and take a tour of the stadium. It has such an impact. The next step for us is a practice field.

On how this compares to other stadiums: It’s an evolution. It started with Crew stadium and every time they get better and better. People will walk into this stadium and say that it’s the best facility in the country. It will be interesting to see what happens with the New York Red Bulls stadium.

On the profile of soccer stadiums at 20,000 capacity: This does have some expansion capability, but we’ll worry about that when we have this thing consistently full. There’s also something to be said for building up some scarcity and demand.

On the completion of the stadium: It’s on time and on-budget which is somewhat rare for a project like this. We did have to chip in a couple of bucks to get it done early for this ESPN game.

FINANCIAL IMPACT

On what this means to the long-term health of the team: “Without it we would not have survived.” This stadium allows us to prosper as a business.

On how this relates to a DP: This stadium should allow for us to generate revenue that makes a DP more possible. This probably won’t happen next year, but 2010 is a real possibility.

On a Mexican international as DP: About 1/3rd of our fans are hispanic. About 95% of these are Mexican. If we could get a Mexican International who can play at a high-level this would be a great mix for us.

On the 3-fold increase in revenue reported in Forbes: Yeah, we should be able to do something in that ball-park. Remember that the parent company to RSL includes the radio station, the team and this stadium. There will be other events at this stadium that will be benefit the parent company, and this will also help the soccer side.

On additional revenue streams: ticket revenue and sponsorships are the main ones, but there is also merchandising and concessions with a small amount of parking as well. Season tickets is the key. We are going to nearly double our season ticket revenue next year. Building that base is the key. The worst thing in the world for soccer is to count on the walkup.

On the report of profitability next year: We are probably more than a year away. , there are alot of expenses. It may allow us to come close to break-even in the next year or so, and to begin to run a good business. It takes alot of hard-work. I’m still learning this market, but we’ll get there.

TICKETS AND PRICING

On Season Tickets: One of the thing’s that has burnt soccer in the past is giving away tickets. It just devalues the tickets eventually. I think people are saying if you give us this stadium we are willing to pay for tickets. We are 30% higher for season tickets from last year, and we’ll probably be 70-80% higher before the start of next season.

On ticket pricing: Ticket pricing hasn’t really gone up across the board. It’s the high-end that has gone up. We think fans will pay for value. So we figured the 50-yard line, and club seats – fans will pay for that. But we also have to have affordable pricing. It’s interesting that the ones that have sold the best have been the high-end and the low-end. The middle price points are the last to sell.

Single Game Pricing:

On how the price points were set: “I looked at the Jazz, I looked at our prior pricing. We then sat back and asked ourselves what prices we thought would not be an insult to the fans, but something that they could absorb. My task is to drive revenues. What can we do to drive revenues? We said the front-row is a great asset, so we premium-priced them.” I think we are the first ones to do this.

On the high prices of the premium seats: A fair question, but if they were priced too high they wouldn’t sell. We have 900 seats and we have sold 724. I reserved 150, and the other 20 or so they currently have holds on them.

On the center-circle seats: “I was a little nervous about that one, because that’s an NFL price.” What we have found is that there is money in this market. We have 96 seats and we have sold 60 so far. They get a road trip to Colorado with the team. They’ll walk out the same tunnel with the team. They have their own club with food and beverage. I can’t say I was 100% sure that they would sell, but it’s a good revenue stream.

On the demographic of season-ticket holders: We have affluent and suburban families. We have alot of season ticket holders from Salt Lake City. About 1/3rd of our fan base is hispanic. And there is a group of 18-28 year olds who are single and have played soccer. Alot of them are in the supporters groups, and are looking for the $300/year tickets. We also have seen more season tickets this year from companies, and then tend to be less price-point conscious.

On marketing ticket sales: We have not yet aggressively marketed these, except for to our current ticket holders, but we will do this. We will have a targeted marketing approach. A “rifle” approach, as opposed to a “shotgun” approach. We have also setup four ticket units: hispanic sales, corporate sales, soccer sales, and affinity sales for everyone else. We also have a premium services group for premium ticket holders and suites. We now have 18 in our ticket sales staff. The average in MLS is 11.

SPONSORSHIPS

The Salt Lake Tribune has reported on the status of stadium sponsors. Please note that the terms of the naming rights by Rio Tinto has commonly been reported as $1.5-2M per year for 15 years. My research indicates that it is more likely $1.5M for 10 years, and Bill Manning seemed to indicate that many of the reports were too high.

On the importance of naming rights: It’s very critical.

On the naming rights deal: We are competitive everywhere, except the Home Depot Center. For our market, I think we did really well for ourselves, and we got a great partner in Rio Tinto.

On Rio Tinto: For us to have them as a partner is flattering. It’s a game changer.

On why Rio Tinto was interested: It’s all about community. They are going through a re-branding in this market, and what better re-branding tool than the stadium. They are also very community conscious, and expecially focused on the youth in this community.

On sponsorships in general: if we can get to where we want to be we’ll be in the top 3 in MLS. And we are well on our way. We are already almost double last year, and we still have 7 months until next season. And we have alot of companies that we are talking to.

MISCELLANEOUS

On hosting other soccer events: I would really like to see us become a consistent destination for the US national team, both men’s and women’s. We would definitely have a pro-American crowd. We could also host the NCAA championships.

On the number of events needed to make the numbers work: We’ll have 4 or 5 quality concerts. We want to have around 40 events each year including RSL. You also have to worry about the field, so we don’t want to have 80 events.

On a Real Madrid Academy: It is something we want to put in place at some point, but it hasn’t been as high of a priority as getting this stadium opened and then getting a practice field. We see value in that academy. And that’s part of youth development. We do plan on having a couple of RSL youth teams next year. The ultimate goal is to have a place where we can recruit kids to come from around the US and the World and play soccer and be part of our system. But that’s going to take a while. Where Garth and I are talking a lot about is having three tiers. We are talking to the folks in the PDL and aligning with them: maybe having a U-17, U-18 team and maybe a U-23 team.

On the festivities for the opener: Let’s just say that it’s going to be a very patriotic night. We’ll have the National Guard in full force. It’s my recognition for them and what they do for our country and our state.

Today, Real Salt Lake President Bill Manning unveiled the teams final parking plan to the media. This is part of an effort to inform the public about the details so that there can be as few hiccups as possible for the first two events to be held there on October 9th and 18th.

Below is a chart listing the nearly 6,700 parking spots. The 631 spots on stadium proper will be available to permit holders only and will be doled out to media, team, and VIP ticket holders. Approximately 4,000 of these will be “free” spots. Around 1,000 will be cash lots, where you can pay upon arrival. And the 1,000 spots at the Southtown Expo Center will be prepaid only (call 924-8585 to make arrangements – will be available on the website soon). The team is actively working to try to continue to expand these available lots. They also expect local businesses to spring up with additional paid lots.

The parking plan will include 3-seperate shuttle routs also provided by the team, to bring in guests from the outlying lots. These shuttles routes will be approximately 15 minutes, but there will be multiple shuttles so the wait time should be less than that.

In addition to parking and shuttles, two additional elements will be put in place to ease the flow of traffic:

• Sandy City will provide police to manage pedestrian traffic, particularly at the busy intersection on 9400 South and State Street.
• Sandy City will also make a second temporary right turn lane from 90th South onto State Street to expedite the flow of traffic toward the stadium.

This information will be deciminated throughout media outlets over the next week leading up to the opener. In addition, a map of this will be provided to all of those who purchase tickets.

The dream began in around December 2003 or January 2004. That’s when Dave Checkett’s, owner of Real Salt Lake, attended an investment capital forum representing his recently founded company Sports Capital Partners. It just so happened that MLS Commissioner Don Garber and MLS President Mark Abbott were also in attendance, and gave a sales pitch about investing in the MLS.

The timing was right on both sides. Dave Checkett’s was taking his sports business background to the next level after having been involved with the Utah Jazz, and running some major sports properties in New York (Madison Square Garden, New York Rangers, New York Knicks). He had funded Sports Capital Partners (now SCP Worldwide) in 2001 and was now looking to get his feet wet in the sports investment business. He had also picked up the scent of soccer while spending a lot of time in Europe as a member of the NBA International venture. While there he saw the magic that soccer was for fans in that part of the world.

On the side of MLS, they had undergone contraction a couple of years prior and were taking some nervous steps forward in order to expand the league. They realized that expanding the league was crucial to its survival. They also needed new investors as the league at that time was riding the backs of a small number of investors (largely Lamar Hunt, Robert Kraft and Phil Anschutz). What they really needed was someone with both business credibility and credibility in the sporting world who would put the energy into helping build the sport. For this reason, Dave Checkett’s late bid to move to the head of the class was successful and Dave Checketts’ was awarded the 14th franchise in the league on July 14th, 2004. He insisted that this franchise reside in his hometown, Salt Lake City, and felt it was important that he make this gift to the city become a successful one.

Both Checkett’s and the league realized well before this announcement that the key to success in this small market was going to be a stadium. Without a stadium for soccer, the economics don’t work as well, and it’s much harder to build enthusiasm for a sport while playing in an atmosphere decidedly not ideal for soccer – an American football stadium.

The planning for a stadium began well before the newly named Real Salt Lake even played their first game at Rice-Eccles. A financial model for the team was put together which assumed moving to a new stadium in 2007. As early as July 2004, the intention was to place the stadium downtown. Quickly they honed in on the “Block 22” section of the city. This was the area next to the newly built Grand America. The owner of the land, Earl Holding was a friend of Dave Checkett’s and appeared to be on-board early on, but eventually reversed his decision and did not want to sale the land that he had battled hard to acquire a few years earlier.

About a month after playing their first home game on April 16, 2005, the City of Sandy put in a bid for the stadium. The political machinery had gone to work early on – in fact, Governor Huntsman, Mayor Anderson, and County Mayor Corroon kicked out the first ball. Sandy’s foray into the stadium tug-of-war started the project down a path that would turn out quite bumpy along the way.

In the background was a tug-of-war which can be oversimplified and described as a battle between Republican politicians on the south end of the valley or in Utah County and democrats from the downtown area. Downtown democrats were interested in revitalizing the downtown area, but Republicans outside of the downtown area were tired of the city proper getting all of the major projects and the County or State funding that went along with it.

The funding plan was a familiar one. Initially it was designed nearly identical to the one used to build the Delta Center. The majority of the infrastructure – some land, roads, sewage, electrical lines, grading, etc would be built through a public funding vehicle called the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and the actual construction of the facility would come out of private funding sources put together by the team. However, several major snags would be hit along the way. First, Republican Curtis Bramble (perhaps best known for Pizza Gate, where he got into an argument with a Pizza delivery driver who would not accept a check)blocked one of the RDA funding mechanisms for a year because he was fearful that the funding was going to build the stadium in the downtown area. Second, some politicians raised concerns about whether or not a stadium would have a re-vitalizing effect after Franklin-Covey field failed to do so, and problems occurred with the private funding portions of the Aquarium downtown.

On October 12, 2005 a press conference was held outside of the South Town Expo Center announcing that the stadium would be built in Sandy. This was a result of House Speaker Greg Curtis, Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan and Sandy native Curtis Bramble coming together and brokering a deal. Although a road map had been laid out, there was still no funding deal in place.

The thinking at the time was the block on the use of RDA funds would soon expire, and the funding deal could move forward. In May 2006, Mayor Carroon said no to this plan and it appeared to be a setback, but not something that could not be overcome. The disappointment at the time was that this was really starting to push back the original intended timeline of moving into a new stadium sometime in 2007.

However, somebody came up with a new plan – to use Transient Room Taxes (TRT’s) instead of the RDA funds. This is a tax on hotel rooms in the county and it was set to phase out within a few years. If this were extended it could be used without any adverse affects to local taxpayers as visitors to the area would be footing the bill.

Unfortunately a lot of turmoil was taking place. So much so that on the eve of one of the most important matches in Real Salt Lake history against Real Madrid, Dave Checkett’s was uncertain about the future of the team, and the stadium.

On the night prior to the game at a dinner with the Real Madrid contingency Dave Checkett’s was thinking about whether or not he should follow through with his leap of faith. He leaned over to the President of Real Madrid and asked something like this, “If I take this leap could you make sure that (then Real Madrid icon) David Beckham is at the groundbreaking tomorrow?” The response was invigorating, something like, “not only will Beckham be there, but the entire team will be there.” And so just hours later on August 12, 2006 at the site the stadium has now sprung up on, some of the most famous footballers in the world put their weight behind special gold shovels and turned over dirt in a very symbolic move.

Since the county would administer these funds as well, Carroon still had some hesitancy and announced that this could not move forward without the review by an independent debt review board. This is when the tone of everything started to take a nasty turn. The public perception was that Real Salt Lake had their hands held out, and were robbing the taxpayers of millions of dollars. The truth is that the funding was only for infrastructure and because of the relative low dollar investment (compared to a $1B new Texas Stadium or new Yankee Stadium) the payback to the surrounding community appeared very solid. However, the debt review committee did not accept this logic, nor did they accept the studies that showed the financial success that recent clubs had seen after moving to soccer specific stadiums. They also weren’t buying any of Real Salt Lake’s projections, feeling that the increased ticket sales were unrealistic, the increased ticket prices were unrealistic, and that the projections for major concerts and other events at the stadium were also unrealistic. On January 17th, Mayor Carroon nixed the stadium deal stating that, “This is an unsafe investment for the public.”

Times were indeed bleak. Tempers had flared in the paper between Checkett’s and Corroon. Allegations of dishonesty, political pandering, and withholding information were tossed about. A famous blowup from Checkett’s about former boss and newfound adversary to the stadium deal, Larry Miller had erupted on the radio. Larry Miller’s response was also scathing. Things were ugly, and it did not appear that there was an end in sight.

Dave Checkett’s had been through months of the on-again, off-again stadium saga and felt that it had nearly run its course, and he felt it was a hopeless situation. His gift to his hometown was not only under-appreciated, but was being outright rejected. He had known that finding acceptance for the game of soccer would take time, but he expected more support from the business community and assumed that somebody prominent would catch the vision. It appeared that was not going to happen.

By all accounts Checkett’s was within about a week’s time of accepting an offer by a St. Louis businessman to buy the team and relocate it there. Fortunately, for all of us, whether soccer fan or not, somebody did step in and demonstrate that he did see the vision. That came from Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. (although some insist that it only came at the prompting of the First Lady). His support gave the House the incentive needed to pass 1SHB38 by a 48-24 margin effectively paving the way for the public funding that would allow the stadium to be built. The announcement came down on February 8, 2007.

The final funding deal required Sandy to create a CDA (Community Development Agency) to administer the funds which were to be collected through the county. The deal includes $35M coming from the county TRT, $10M coming from the City of Sandy and the remaining $72.5M coming from SCP and financing partner I-star financial. The State, County and City will own the land, and Real Salt Lake will have obligations related to this funding. In addition, Real Salt Lake has already made a payment in the amount of $7.5M for a youth soccer complex to be built somewhere in the County.

All of this means that on October 9, 2008 – just two short weeks away, the dream will be finally realized. For many the result will include soccer, for others it may be a concert, or a graduation ceremony or a high school football game. I think that even those initially bitterly opposed to the stadium, will come to accept it for the shining jewel that it will be in Salt Lake County for decades to come.