SANDY, Utah—Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen announced Saturday the plans for the Real Salt Lake Training Center, a 42-acre, $50 million training facility, to house the organization's Utah teams and to better integrate RSL into the community.
The facility will further enmesh Real Salt Lake into the bedrock of Utah soccer, and especially into Herriman City, where the center and a charter school will provide public-use facilities and jobs.
"It will be like none other in the nation," Hansen said. "The concept of how we relate to the community and how we relate to soccer in Utah and how we in the smallest market in MLS will have the most powerful community and youth training system in the US. We will be akin to Barcelona, the Netherlands and a number of teams in England."
The investment to create this facility comes with a long-term view. Instead of growing into it, this type of organization plan and larger, almost all-encompassing, facility will house the organization today and into the future.
"We decided instead of taking baby steps to take a big step and just get there," Hansen said. "That's the vision this organization has that a nine-year-old today in Utah could be on the field in 10 years. We're looking for that Herriman Messi."
The facility will house RSL and the United Soccer League's Real Monarchs and extensions of the U-18 and U-16 academies in Arizona. It could grow to include a women's professional team and other youth developmental age groups. It will also provide some facilities for visiting USL and academy teams, as well as international teams wanting to train in America. The scope is even impressive for those who have been involved in its planning.
"I'm extremely excited for what this does for our organization," said RSL general manager Craig Waibel. "Having been a part of this league for so long and having been a part of the growth of American soccer for as long as I have been a part of it, this is an amazing project to be a part of. It's an amazing thing for our state and our region."
Groundbreaking is expected within 30-45 days, and the opening to follow in August 2017, for that year's academy classes. It would be fully operational for the 2018 MLS and USL seasons.
Along with the complex, Hansen has created the non-profit RSL Youth Academy Foundation, creating regional training centers across Utah. The group of $2 million indoor/outdoor facilities will provide facilities and specialized training for more than 60,000 players, coaches and referees.
Taken together these plans will in effect create sites and facilities for RSL-specific training from ages nine and up dotting the state of Utah with the training center in Herriman as a focal point. The goal is providing an even earlier start to welcoming gifted soccer players into the Real Salt Lake family.
"It allows us to establish an identity within our state," Waibel said. "We're such a family-oriented club, this gives us the opportunity to truly build from a younger age and establish from a younger age an identity in our community."
