One of the largest youth soccer tournaments in America is coming to Utah
One of the largest youth soccer tournaments in America is coming to Utah
Dubbed the "Little League World Series of Soccer," Premier SuperCopa is expected to draw 15,000 attendees to Salt Lake City with an estimated economic impact of up to $10.5 million.
Good morning, and thank you for spending part of your day with Own Goals, the official newsletter of the Salt City FC podcast dedicated to Real Salt Lake and soccer on the Wasatch Front.
The last part of that tagline is forgotten every now and again, but it’s true; we really do like to focus on soccer beyond just Utah’s top-division team that competes in Major League Soccer. While the club and its affiliate Real Monarchs are key to our newsletter coverage, we also recognize that soccer is more than a team, more than a league, and often times more than a game for thousands of Utahns every year.
For starters, soccer is big business. And one of the biggest businesses of the sport has brought a huge potential impact to the Beehive State through the weekend.
Premier SuperCopa, sometimes called the “Little League World Series of Soccer,” kicked off Thursday afternoon at the Regional Athletic Complex in Salt Lake City, 2280 N. Rose Park Lane.
If you haven’t heard of Premier SuperCopa, you probably aren’t alone. It’s not a professional tournament or a new brand of cross-league competition between MLS and Liga MX that commissioner Don Garber is trying to convince the American soccer fanbase is worth its time.
But it is big money in the realm of youth soccer, and because Utah is playing host to the tournament for the first time, it means big business for the state.
Premier SuperCopa consists of 2,880 players on 194 teams playing 456 games over three days across multiple divisions before crowning a champion Sunday afternoon at the RAC. With all those teams comes volunteers, coaches, parents and family members of some of the nation’s top youth soccer teams — an estimated 15,000 attendees swarming the west side of Salt Lake for three days for U-9 to U-12 competition in both boys and girls divisions, with some of the top amateur teams in the country with names like Keystone FC, Dallas Texans and Seattle United in the field.
Founded in Dallas in 2013, the 10th anniversary of the SuperCopa has come to Utah for the first time, thanks to a winning bid from the Utah Sports Commission, CEO Jeff Robbins and the organization’s sponsors that help attract sporting events from professional mixed martial arts, golf, motocross and more to spend time in the Beehive State.
"We are excited to welcome SuperCopa to Utah,” Robbins said. “With 200 teams, over 90% of whom are from out of state, an event of this magnitude will create an estimated economic impact of up to $10.5 million to Utah.”
Even conservative estimates paint a favorable picture of the state’s tourism industry, with $8.5 million passing through Utah in the form of hotels, dining, entertainment and so forth. And with the length of travel several of the teams possess just to get here, through multiple qualifying tournaments and the like, it’s likely the minimum estimate is significantly larger.
Elite players, elite coaches, elite teams. And an elite impact on the state of Utah, so the next time somebody asks you “why do you like soccer?” you can point them to events like this that have real, meaningful impact on citizens and communities.
“Tournaments like SuperCopa are a great opportunity, a kind of litmus test, to see where you are as a team, and as individuals,” World Cup champion Mia Hamm said of the organization and the invitation-only tournament several years ago.
Find a complete schedule and tournament information on the tournament’s website,
Around the Leagues
We mentioned that we like to take a look outside of MLS and MLS NEXT Pro every now and again, so here’s a glance at other semipro teams in Utah as they get their seasons underway.
In USL League 2, Salt City SC fell to New Mexico United’s U-23s 5-2 on Thursday night at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, though the former Ogden City SC got a superb goal from RSL Academy product and Utah Valley freshman Mateo Palomino in the second half.
Salt City (no relation) took a 1-1 draw into halftime, but was undone by a pair of set-pieces early in the second half — including a penalty kick for a handball against a defender while defending a corner — and never fully recovered to drop to 0-4-2 on the year.
Meanwhile, the other Utah team playing in League Two’s Mountain Division, Park City Red Wolves SC, has exploded out of the gate.
The Red Wolves are unbeaten to start the year, a 4-0-2 record for 14 points to take a commanding six-point lead on second-place New Mexico. The two sides will clash Saturday at Judge Memorial High School (7:30 p.m. MT) in a match that could play a massive role on either side’s season with one month to go until the playoffs.
It’s also the antepenultimate home match of the year for Park City, and the last until hosting the Colorado International Soccer Academy (CISA) in the final weekend of the regular season July 15-17. So if you haven’t gotten tickets to Saturday night’s RSL match against San Jose, you have an alternative.
First-year champs
Speaking of alternatives, the first-year Utah Avalanche will wrap up a division title in the semipro Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) at 7:30 p.m. MT Saturday night against Utah Red Devils at Summit Academy High School in Draper.
The Avalanche are 7-0 on the year with 18 goals scored and just five conceded, playing an aggressive style of soccer that includes collegiate standouts like Laveni and Daviana Vaka of BYU, TCU-bound Seven Castain from Waterford, and former Utah Royals short-term forward Colette Smith.
"To be able to do as well as we have in our first season in the league, that speaks a lot for the quality of players we have on our team," Avalanche coach Trevor Waschman told WPSL Soccer. "This is an incredibly competitive league."
Playoffs?!?!!
Meanwhile, playoffs begin this week in the UPSL.
Salt Lake’s A-Stars will has the Red Wolves’ Academy U-19 team in a Mountain division quarterfinal Saturday at 7 p.m. MT at Zions Bank Stadium. The winner will advance to face Idaho Cutthroats FC next Saturday, June 25.
In the other quarterfinal, Salt Lake’s Utah Development Academy hosts Provo FC at 3 p.m. MT on the indoor west field at Zions Bank Real Academy. The winner will face top-seeded Murcielagos FC of West Valley.