Hey watch yourself, boy. One of the items in that photo may or may not be turning 40 years old on Wednesday. [emoji24] [emoji174]
I bought a mini pack this year and I’ve purposely not gone to about three games. I’m not burned out on soccer, far from it, I watch ESPN+ all the time. I’m burned out on attending RSL games in person. Over Memorial Day my wife and I went home to Cincinnati to visit family in OH and KY. We stayed a couple days in the city and attended the FC Cincinnati vs Louisville City match. Right now FCC plays at the University of Cincinnati so we headed over for the game. Beforehand we stopped at Mecklenburg Gardens to pregame. It’s an old beer hall about a half mile from the stadium and it was great. Everyone was friendly and we were invited to march to the stadium with everyone else. My wife was recovering from a sprained ankle so we declined. There were 28,000 people at the game and not once did I get shoulder checked by a fellow fan who can’t walk in crowds (happens at every big event in Utah). Everyone was in their seat by kickoff and actually knew where their seats were located. All of the supporters sat at one end and actually got the whole stadium either chanting or clapping along with the drums at a couple points. There was a plethora of local beers in more flavors than just IPA. Overall it was a great time. I had a similar experience at Seattle a couple years ago. RSL is really lacking. There’s nowhere to go pre or post game. Parking is terrible (if you choose to drive), the beer selection has improved but has a long way to go. I won’t rant on the supporters other than to say Sec. 35 needs to go. It’s just a hassle to go to games even though RSL isn’t bad. I have three games left on the mini pack but I don’t know if I’ll use them all.
Not that I have any room to talk, but how would you improve it? There's really nowhere to meet that's willing to sell near the stadium, they all jacked up their asking prices looking for a windfall. Never got into the supporters group thing, so I really can't complain. Agree that it feels more of a hassle than a joy, but I can't seem to come up with many constructive suggestions for improvement.
I honestly don't know what can be done to improve it. A big problem is location since the RioT was built during the MLS 1.0 mentality. Sandy elected an anti-development mayor so there probably won't be a lot of new businesses around the stadium for the foreseeable future. We're stuck with the RioT for another 20 years and it's unfortunate that it couldn't have been downtown but that ship has sailed. There is also a rumor out there that they're going to expand the stadium. I really don't know if I'll attend at all then since it can be a pain with just 20,000 people there. A lot of my issues are the same issues I have with practically any large event in Utah. Overpriced food/beverages, unorganized events, people who can't walk in crowds, herds of kids. These aren't limited to RSL but RSL games are the events I attend most. I'd like to see RSL take a page out of ATL United's book and drastically lower the price of concessions and add a few more water fountains around the stadium. Wider seats that are clearly marked with cup holders would go a long way to improving comfort. Instead of expanding the stadium, redo the south end with safe standing and make all supporters groups stand there.
while the FO has been, understandably, hands off on the supporters section/group thing something has to change their. Otherwise we're going to turn even more into the youth soccer setup in this area: far too many clubs for how much population there actually is. I also find it a bit ironic and perplexing that DLH is willing to dump as much money as he is into the soccer side development while seemingly abandoning the plans the club laid out of developing the block that the RioT is on. Maybe that is the next phase? Not being downtown does suck. I like the stadium location for selfish reasons (I can get to it in like 10 mins) but the gameday experience (outside the actual game) of a Utah Football game blows the RioT out of the water largely because of the location of RES.
Sandy's new mayor probably pissed DLH off. I know he was tight with the former mayor and the former administration was more development friendly.
I don't think efforts this year have really done anything to improve. Televised interviews from viewing parties at sponsored bars was a big miss, IMO. The gear is too pricey, even with the merch of the match promo. Solar panels might be good PR, but it really doesn't affect fans personally.
That was something else that struck me with FC Cincy. There's so much licensed gear around town. It might be a MLS thing that keeps licensed gear hard to come by but I know Homage does t-shirts for the Crew. You just don't see that much stuff for RSL. I love the solar panels both from an environmental standpoint and the fact that it give us covered parking so you'll never hear me complain about that.
a lot of the local shops (Target, Old Navy, TJ Maxx, etc) have RSL gear at pretty reasonable prices. If you want something authentic (like a jersey) then yes, go to the team store. Otherwise, hit up one of these other places* *Unless you were lucky/smart enough to get out to the MASSIVE sale the team store had earlier this year. You also needed a TON of time to stand in line. I had a ton of gear stacked in my arms but wasn't about to stand in an hour long line.
We hit that twice. From estimates we bought well of $1,000 in gear for less than $200 bucks. It was fun.
Not to make a mountain out of a molehill, but the RioT was definitely built during the heyday of MLS2.0, right in the midst of Beckham mania (I mean for crying out loud they actually had David Beckham AT THE GROUND BREAKING CEREMONY with a GOLDEN shovel). The RioT represents everything MLS2.0, it's a near carbon copy of the Chicago Fire stadium, built a bit fancier than the FC Dallas stadium, was part of the blue print for the Philly stadium, etc etc. MLS 3.0 didn't really kick off, at least in terms of stadiums, until the Portland/Kansas CityRebrand/Seattle era. MLS 1.0 was basically nothing but football stadiums up until/including the Columbus cookie cutter stadium.
Good points. And it wasn't just David Beckham, but the entire Real Madrid squad was on hand for the groundbreaking in Sandy. I still remember that day... I dragged my wife to the ceremony. I had on my blue ReAL logo hat with my yellow training jersey (the very first RSL training jersey, that is), the Wife with the original white ReAL Salt Lake jersey (no sponsor). It was a surreal experience standing in an empty field with Real Madrid and Golden Balls with a golden shovel taking stabs at what would soon be hallowed ground. Local media folks, fans and the curious alike, wide-eyed and uncertain but excited about what was to become of this day. I was truly impressed that a legendary club would be there to support an unknown copycat club such as Salt Lake.
To follow up on Boz’s post, we’re lucky to have a stadium and a team. I’m not going to complain about it’s location much. Larry Miller blocked the stadium going nearer downtown SLC and tried to block it in Sandy. However, I do wish the organization would be more adventurous about commercial development around the stadium. A well conceived sports bar would be successful on that site, even during the off season and non-game days. Add in a higher end restaurant alternative and watch the money roll in.
Transit. Work and spend on traffic or mass transit w city and state partners to reduce micro economic friction for game attendance.
One issue is that there are already a lot of commercial spaces two blocks north and two blocks south and that sucks a lot of the potential customers away seeing as Utah blocks are far too large. Hopefully the Cairns project attracts more development but that is still south of the stadium and not at a TRAX stop.