Real Salt Lake has new ownership, but 'the RSL Way' isn't changing, team president says
Speaking at a Silicon Slopes event, Real Salt Lake president John Kimball highlighted the club's historic academy system and some of the changes under new owners Ryan Smith and David Blitzer.

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Own Goals, the official newsletter of the Salt City FC podcast. Real Salt Lake president John Kimball held court with Silicon Slopes, a group of investors, founders and entrepreneurs in business and tech on the Wasatch Front, recently. Here’s a look at some of what he said.
Real Salt Lake is more than a player, coach or general manager. The club that first came to Utah in 2005 under Dave Checketts is even more than an owner.
And the DNA of Salt Lake City’s Major League Soccer franchise isn’t changing with new management.
That was a portion of the message delivered by team president John Kimball during a lengthy interview released Friday with Silicon Slopes TV, a regular sit-down with local leaders in business, tech, sports and so forth to discuss the burgeoning tech industry on the Wasatch Front.
Kimball was one of the first employees at RSL when Checketts founded the team nearly 20 years ago. After leaving to work in media and with other teams in the state, including the Utah Jazz, he’s back in the full-time role as team president to oversee the transition to a new era of RSL.
And even with the arrival of new owners David Blitzer and Ryan Smith, the NBA executives with stakes in professional sports across the country, the fabric of Real Salt Lake remains the same.
MLS may change, grow and evolve, especially with the billions of dollars flowing into the league when a new media-rights deal begins in 2023 with Apple and an even greater spotlight is thrust on the competition leading up to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
But RSL will always be RSL.
“Somebody asked me a couple of days ago, what do you think about Messi coming to MLS and playing in America? I said, that’s fantastic; what’s great for us is we sell those games out,” Kimball said. “It’s not a model that we will ever follow, as far as I understand. To bring in those premier-type players is extremely expensive. But the model that we believe in is the academy, investing in kids, bringing them at a very young age, making sure they are educated.
“It’s very important to our ownership group that these kids get a great education and go to college. And then a handful will sign professional contracts, like Aaron Herrera, Justen Glad and Jaziel Orozco. Our model is to build this type of academy … to take that and build these players. We’re already seeing great success with the players on our first team right now. That’s the model we will be playing.”

Just to reiterate: RSL isn’t afraid to spend money when necessary; look at the recent acquisitions of Jefferson Savarino and Anderson Julio, for examples of opening the budget to fill a need.
But when it comes to filling out the roster with the highest-priced designated players and immediate turnovers of talent espoused by other teams in MLS, don’t look to the Salt Lake Valley.
They have a system for producing talent, and that system involves the academy in Herriman, branches across the western United States (primarily in Arizona), and a system that starts players as young as 8 years and raises them to produce professionals as young as 14 before opting for first-team minutes — either with RSL, or another club.
So just to be clear …
“We won’t be bringing Messi here any time soon, or any players of that caliber,” Kimball said. “It’s great for the league, but it’s not our model.”
What is also part of RSL’s model is the knowledge of who they are: an entertaining soccer club built on the foundation of a small market (embrace it, Utah!) with the penchant to punch above its weight.
It’s worked so far, too; the 2009 MLS Cup champions are currently in third place in the Western Conference with a 7-4-4 overall record, despite being among the lowest payrolls in the league and a road-heavy early schedule.
That could all change — both for better or for worse — in the coming weeks and months, as the dog days of summer envelope MLS and the playoff push comes closer and closer.
But RSL knows who they are. And inside the club’s business operations, that is particularly true.
“We’re here to entertain,” Kimball said. “The beautiful game is really important that all are welcome. A big part of that is the vibe we are creating, and the way we can connect with different parts of the community. Others want to be sitting next to us.
“There’s a lot of money spent in sports. But there’s a lot of solid ROI, too.”
Of course, with business comes occasional loss of sponsors and corporate supporters, and Kimball addressed that during his 45-minute long conversation released Friday.
The club’s contract with Rio Tinto for naming rights to the only soccer-specific stadium Utah has ever known recently expired after a 15-year deal elapsed and a temporary extension of the naming rights was put into place.

For now, Real Salt Lake will still allow fans to refer to their home turf as "Rio Tinto Stadium,” or “the RioT” for short. Signage still exists across the stadium designating it as such. But the club has also partnered with Playfly Sports to find a more permanent sponsor for the jewel of Sandy.
And when it came time for RSL and Rio Tinto — the global owner of the Kennecott mines in the Salt Lake Valley — to go their separate ways, there were no hard feelings.
Quite the opposite, actually. The $63 billion company headquartered in London came to RSL with the goal to “make Rio Tinto a household name by the time we’re done with these naming rights,” Kimball explained.
“They wanted people to know the name of Rio Tinto,” he added. “And very proudly, a year ago, they said, ‘you guys accomplished that goal.”
The club now searches for a new naming rights partner for the stadium, even if the new sponsor’s goal “might be completely different,” the team president said.
But the stadium — whether The RioT, or RSL Stadium, or any other name — will always have its place. As will Real Salt Lake as they seek to re-engage a community under an active new ownership and a Pablo Mastroeni-led team back to its winning ways.
“People ask me what it is that we’ve done, and it’s 50 different things,” Kimball said. “We’ve re-engaged with the Hispanic community, got involved with our fan clubs, worked with our media partners and great partnerships like American First Credit Union, and others who have stuck with us.
“We wanted to make sure we were a great partner, and that we worked with them financially in that we were fair with what we were delivering. Those partners stuck with us, and they’re looking forward to more opportunities.”
Watch Kimball’s entire Silicon Slopes interview here.