Utah Royals break ground on multimillion-dollar, NWSL-specific training facility

The expansion to the Zions Bank Real Academy is expected to be done by the spring of 2024, in time for the Royals' first season in the 14-team National Women's Soccer League.

HERRIMAN, Utah — Ryan Smith has a lot on his plate, between running ownership of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake, a third-division club in Real Monarchs, and the soon-to-be relaunched Utah Royals FC in the National Women’s Soccer League.

So when asked if he had any plans to bring another franchise to Salt Lake City — from rumors of his talks with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to reviving the former Utah Starzz of the WNBA, in some fashion — his immediate response is that he has “a lot on our plates.”

But that doesn’t mean never in the form of providing another outlet for women’s sports on the Wasatch Front.

While driving his children to school earlier Thursday morning, Smith continued a weekly tradition with his family where they share “what they are glad about.”

His 7-year-old daughter’s answer took him back, especially a day after the Utah Jazz’s 130-114 loss to the Sacramento Kings in Wednesday’s season opener.

“You never know what the kids are gonna say,” he said, admitting he was in a bit of a “salty” mood after the Jazz’s loss. “And she goes, I’m glad that I have a soccer game tomorrow. You feel that when you’re here; that’s what we’re gonna have and we’re gonna go and create and built and the impact of the work we’re doing will be felt 20-30 years down the road.

“So when you think about women’s sports, we’re all in; we’re not going to be in halfway. You guys know I’m all in and all the time.”

The Utah Royals broke ground Thursday on an NWSL-specific, 12,260-square foot expansion to the club’s Zions Bank Real Academy in Herriman, putting shovels in the ground on a multimillion-dollar project that will expand and remodel the current site, and be used specifically for the top-division women’s soccer club that is slated to return to the NWSL in the spring of 2024.

The expansion — which sits on the 42-acre campus that already hosts five natural-grass outdoor fields, two full-size artificial-turf indoor fields and the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium — will prove the Royals with a daily home for all training and preparation exercises.

With the addition, the Royals will become just the third team in the soon-to-be 14-team NWSL with a dedicated training facility solely for the women’s team, joining the Kansas City Current and Racing Louisville. Both the Orlando Pride and Houston Dash have dedicated spaces that is also tied to their MLS affiliates.

But the expansion is more than a workout facility.

The facility will also feature state-of-the-art sports medicine and performance-based facilities, a players’ weight and training room, a new locker room, and dedicated hydrotherapy, hot and cold tubs, and a sauna for the NWSL team. In addition to a players’ lounge similar to one found for Real Salt Lake, the Royals’ wing of the facility will also include space for childcare and nursing mothers.

“There are so many new standards being set in the NWSL nowadays, and the Utah Royals are pushing that even higher,” said Royals head coach Amy Rodriguez, the former U.S. women’s international team forward who played for the first iteration of the club from 2018-2020. “I’m so excited to be a part of this project.

“It’s one of the biggest, probably most exciting pieces of my career and especially to come back and coach a team that I played for and I experienced with the Royals in the first iteration. I thought it was great originally, but this blows even that out of the water. I feel so fortunate to be a part of this time where we are pushing boundaries and setting standards for women in sport and women’s soccer in America. Thanks to Ryan and the team, the entire organization, we are going to give our players the biggest and best potential that they have ever seen.”

It’s the fourth practice facility that Smith, who also owns the Jazz’s developmental franchise in the NBA G League, has spearheaded. But his job, as he mentioned, was simply to get out of the way and support the women running the organization the best he can.

“Ownership has basically handed over the keys to myself, to Amy, to our sporting director, and said, ‘we don’t want to just do something because it has been done in the past. This is a new era,’” Royals president Michelle Hyncik said. “The decision to build out a new campus and new training center dedicated to soccer, to RSL, and to the Utah Royals is the ultimately decision and could not be more excited about all the opportunities that is opening.”

And one of the biggest contributors to success in each of his sports organizations? The right training facility.

“This is what fans don’t understand, is that these are really the laps,” Smith said. “You think it’s the arena and the stadium, but all the day-to-day work happens here.”

Added Rodriguez: “Players are going to want to come here because I’m hoping that we can unlock the next level of the game. Someone who gets to come and train here is ultimately going to become better. They’re going to develop more. They’re going to have a great soccer experience, and that’s exactly what we want to do here.”

With the shovels in the ground and construction slated to finish by the spring of 2024, Rodriguez and the Royals have will begin assembling a roster for the club’s return to the league.

What will that roster look like?

“The big buzzwords that I always use are humble and hard working,” the first-time professional head coach said. “I love good people. I want hard workers. I want champions on and off the field. How I coach is similar to how I play, which is very intense, demanding, organized. And hopefully it comes with wins and a lot of fun.”