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Give & Go: RSL Owner Dave Checketts
On the eve of Real Salt Lake's new stadium opening, Goal.com’s John Mantia chats with the RSL owner about the political struggles to get the stadium done, the value of the designated player, and the possibility of bringing Liverpool to next year's MLS All-star game
Oct 8, 2008 11:49:15 PM
By John Mantia
Prior to Real Salt Lake’s playoff push this season, two types of headlines personified the club: on-field woes and lobbying for a home. The former is expected from an upstart franchise. The later, though, was unique to MLS.
In a well-documented, often contentious negotiation with Salt Lake County officials, team owner Dave Checketts and the rest of Real Salt Lake’s front office pressed for public capital to support a soccer-specific stadium. Remarkably, Checketts succeeded where several founding MLS franchises are still floundering. It wasn’t easy though, and Checketts is the first to admit it.
In late summer of 2006, Checketts flushed political impasse during an impromptu and rather bold groundbreaking ceremony. It was a paparazzi-perfect event: standing shoulder-to-shoulder with David Beckham (then sporting Real Madrid’s colors), they plunged gold shovels into the soil of the aptly named Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City.
However, in the year that followed, public funding proposals – and subsequent revisions – failed. Checketts proclaimed the situation hopeless and threatened to sell and relocate the club. It wasn’t until February 2007, nearly 18 months after Beckham’s gilded dig, that he reached the political resolution he sought.
Regardless of their struggles, Real Salt Lake now embodies the potential optimism (and capital) of a new stadium. Just last week, Checketts announced that MLS’s seventh soccer-specific stadium entered into a naming rights agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto for a reported fifteen years at between $1.5 million to $2 million per year.
Rio Tinto Stadium opens this Thursday night with RSL’s nationally televised match against the New York Red Bulls. En route to Salt Lake City for the big premiere, Checketts spoke exclusively with Goal.com.
Goal.com: What can current owners and potential expansion teams learn from Real Salt Lake’s stadium struggles and ultimately your success?
Checketts: We are moving into a stadium, before the end of our fourth season in Salt Lake City, so I feel pretty good about that. It’s not an easy process, and I feel like we did it very, very quickly, to get it done. It just takes an iron will, you have to be able to stay with it, and you have to hope that you can find leadership along your local leaders: your community leaders, county leaders, and state leaders. Fortunately, we did find some people that had a vision for Utah, to see Rio Tinto Stadium as being very beneficial for the economy in the area and the state’s image.
Goal.com: Despite the road bumps, Real Salt Lake has a home in less than four years, what do the next four years hold for the club?
Checketts: We are really going to turn our attention to building our academy, and to our new practice facilities. We have to become a more important part of the local culture, so that entails deriving opportunities for kids to play more and building community fields in partnership with communities. We have to be a club that’s constantly trying to be competitive to win cups.
Goal.com: You mentioned developing the youth academy as a top priority, with the Los Angeles Galaxy signing Tristan Bowden this week, making him the first academy signing what will RSL do, specifically, to compete?
Checketts: We’ve increased our interactions with the US Olympic Committee and Ski Team; we are looking at sharing facilities. We want to have first class facilities so we can bring in and recruit talent from all over the world to an elite soccer academy where they can get the best coaching, play in great facilities – all these things will help us create a world-class academy.
Goal.com: What were your design inspirations for Rio Tinto Stadium? What makes this stadium unique to others in the league?
Checketts: I tried to incorporate what I saw in Europe during the early 1990s, while I was running NBA International. The roofline is unique among stadiums in the United States. We also have an awards platform right in the middle of the seats. I was inspired by the Bernabeu [home to Real Madrid]. Also there is the grand staircase, a beautiful stairway on the northwest side of the stadium. I told the architect, “Think of the Spanish Steps in Rome!” I wanted it to be a glorious entrance that goes up and goes both ways, and that’s what it does.
Goal.com: Real Salt Lake was granted the 2009 All-Star Game. What can fans expect from that event next year at Rio Tinto Stadium?
Checketts: We want to build on the success we saw in Toronto. Those guys did a great, great job. We are looking at a lot of events, including some camps all over the valley using payers, alumni, past and present, we’re looking at grand celebration on the main street in Park City, Utah. As for the game itself, it really depends on what kind of opponent we can get to play.
Goal.com: Any specific teams with that you are in discussion with?
Checketts: We’ve been talking to and have an interest in lots of different clubs: Lyon in France, as well as a number of Premier League teams. I know the owners of Liverpool pretty well, and we are having a lot of preliminary conversations and it appears there is a lot of interest, in particular about coming to this stadium and then playing in this game.
Goal.com: Beyond the boardroom and bank accounts, what does owning your own stadium do for Real Salt Lake? Have you already seen an attitude change?
Checketts: There’s a big attitude shift. We were using somebody else’s locker room and they’d have to move their stuff out and we always felt like a tenant. It gives us a sense of permanence, which will give us a big advantage in recruiting players and to develop young kids. My goal is to make it so our players won’t want to play anywhere else.
Goal.com: Rio Tinto Stadium gives the club tremendous financial stability. Is now the right time for Real Salt Lake to bring in a Designated Player?
Checketts: We’ve seen Designated Players that have thrived and others that have been disasters, so we are proceeding cautiously, but at the right time, I would definitely like to have a Designated Player.
Goal.com: Tim Leiweke, owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy, recently called to eliminate the salary cap constraints brought with a Designated Player. Do you agree?
Checketts: I think long term the league has to spend more money on talent, but as to the structure of how we will pursue that, I’m going to have those conversations with my partners before I have them with the press.
Goal.com: You said that the league will have to invest more money in talent, when do you see that happening? How do you envision those changes?
Checketts: The collective bargaining agreement is up in a couple of years, and I hope we get past it and keep the league going in the right direction. That’ll be very important. I know I didn’t answer the question, but the reality is, this is a growing league and it’s growing for a number of good reasons and we have to be careful abut that growth, and make sure we don’t make mistakes that were made in the NASL.
Goal.com: Where do you see the league in 5 to 10 years?
Checketts: I don’t know if it will pass the NBA or MLB – maybe the NHL – but I do know it’ll be a very strong league with 15, 16 soccer-specific stadiums in major markets. The talk of one in Flushing, Queens is very interesting because I love New York and New York loves soccer. Other cities trying to come into the party are very attractive and very international. I’d like to think in 5 to 10 years that have 20, 22, 24 teams perhaps and lot of soccer specific stadiums and franchises worth a couple hundred million dollars.
Goal.com: How will the composition of squads change over that same 5 to 10 year timeframe? How competitive will the league be?
Checketts: They will be represented by all kinds of countries because of the quality of life. The US is very attractive. But I hope by then, through the academy programs, we develop a lot more talent from the US. We can do it too, but only with the right kind of coaching. That said, the dollars will be have to be there for these coaches to come make a living, then we’ll develop a lot more players.
Goal.com: With the regular season winding down, what are the most pressing topics for MLS that warrant thorough, serious discussions?
Checketts: The number one item, and I’m not trying to set priorities that’s up to the commissioner, but the schedule is always a difficult issues because of international play. It will be especially difficult in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. When some teams lose 5 or 6 players, crucial players, playing scheduled games is very tough. I know the commissioner is thinking about that, and I certainly am as well.
Player compensation and the Designated Player rules also need to be addressed in the off-season. Finally, we need to talk about expansion: not to expand too fast, but expand appropriate to the level of interest. I think all of the owners want to be really careful that we welcome very strong franchises capable of carrying their own weight.
Goal.com: Thanks very much for talking with us. Good luck on Thursday night.
Checketts: Thanks.
John Mantia is a new contributor to Goal.com.
Prior to Real Salt Lake’s playoff push this season, two types of headlines personified the club: on-field woes and lobbying for a home. The former is expected from an upstart franchise. The later, though, was unique to MLS.
In a well-documented, often contentious negotiation with Salt Lake County officials, team owner Dave Checketts and the rest of Real Salt Lake’s front office pressed for public capital to support a soccer-specific stadium. Remarkably, Checketts succeeded where several founding MLS franchises are still floundering. It wasn’t easy though, and Checketts is the first to admit it.
In late summer of 2006, Checketts flushed political impasse during an impromptu and rather bold groundbreaking ceremony. It was a paparazzi-perfect event: standing shoulder-to-shoulder with David Beckham (then sporting Real Madrid’s colors), they plunged gold shovels into the soil of the aptly named Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City.
However, in the year that followed, public funding proposals – and subsequent revisions – failed. Checketts proclaimed the situation hopeless and threatened to sell and relocate the club. It wasn’t until February 2007, nearly 18 months after Beckham’s gilded dig, that he reached the political resolution he sought.
Regardless of their struggles, Real Salt Lake now embodies the potential optimism (and capital) of a new stadium. Just last week, Checketts announced that MLS’s seventh soccer-specific stadium entered into a naming rights agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto for a reported fifteen years at between $1.5 million to $2 million per year.
Rio Tinto Stadium opens this Thursday night with RSL’s nationally televised match against the New York Red Bulls. En route to Salt Lake City for the big premiere, Checketts spoke exclusively with Goal.com.
Goal.com: What can current owners and potential expansion teams learn from Real Salt Lake’s stadium struggles and ultimately your success?
Checketts: We are moving into a stadium, before the end of our fourth season in Salt Lake City, so I feel pretty good about that. It’s not an easy process, and I feel like we did it very, very quickly, to get it done. It just takes an iron will, you have to be able to stay with it, and you have to hope that you can find leadership along your local leaders: your community leaders, county leaders, and state leaders. Fortunately, we did find some people that had a vision for Utah, to see Rio Tinto Stadium as being very beneficial for the economy in the area and the state’s image.
Goal.com: Despite the road bumps, Real Salt Lake has a home in less than four years, what do the next four years hold for the club?
Checketts: We are really going to turn our attention to building our academy, and to our new practice facilities. We have to become a more important part of the local culture, so that entails deriving opportunities for kids to play more and building community fields in partnership with communities. We have to be a club that’s constantly trying to be competitive to win cups.
Goal.com: You mentioned developing the youth academy as a top priority, with the Los Angeles Galaxy signing Tristan Bowden this week, making him the first academy signing what will RSL do, specifically, to compete?
Checketts: We’ve increased our interactions with the US Olympic Committee and Ski Team; we are looking at sharing facilities. We want to have first class facilities so we can bring in and recruit talent from all over the world to an elite soccer academy where they can get the best coaching, play in great facilities – all these things will help us create a world-class academy.
Goal.com: What were your design inspirations for Rio Tinto Stadium? What makes this stadium unique to others in the league?
Checketts: I tried to incorporate what I saw in Europe during the early 1990s, while I was running NBA International. The roofline is unique among stadiums in the United States. We also have an awards platform right in the middle of the seats. I was inspired by the Bernabeu [home to Real Madrid]. Also there is the grand staircase, a beautiful stairway on the northwest side of the stadium. I told the architect, “Think of the Spanish Steps in Rome!” I wanted it to be a glorious entrance that goes up and goes both ways, and that’s what it does.
Goal.com: Real Salt Lake was granted the 2009 All-Star Game. What can fans expect from that event next year at Rio Tinto Stadium?
Checketts: We want to build on the success we saw in Toronto. Those guys did a great, great job. We are looking at a lot of events, including some camps all over the valley using payers, alumni, past and present, we’re looking at grand celebration on the main street in Park City, Utah. As for the game itself, it really depends on what kind of opponent we can get to play.
Goal.com: Any specific teams with that you are in discussion with?
Checketts: We’ve been talking to and have an interest in lots of different clubs: Lyon in France, as well as a number of Premier League teams. I know the owners of Liverpool pretty well, and we are having a lot of preliminary conversations and it appears there is a lot of interest, in particular about coming to this stadium and then playing in this game.
Goal.com: Beyond the boardroom and bank accounts, what does owning your own stadium do for Real Salt Lake? Have you already seen an attitude change?
Checketts: There’s a big attitude shift. We were using somebody else’s locker room and they’d have to move their stuff out and we always felt like a tenant. It gives us a sense of permanence, which will give us a big advantage in recruiting players and to develop young kids. My goal is to make it so our players won’t want to play anywhere else.
Goal.com: Rio Tinto Stadium gives the club tremendous financial stability. Is now the right time for Real Salt Lake to bring in a Designated Player?
Checketts: We’ve seen Designated Players that have thrived and others that have been disasters, so we are proceeding cautiously, but at the right time, I would definitely like to have a Designated Player.
Goal.com: Tim Leiweke, owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy, recently called to eliminate the salary cap constraints brought with a Designated Player. Do you agree?
Checketts: I think long term the league has to spend more money on talent, but as to the structure of how we will pursue that, I’m going to have those conversations with my partners before I have them with the press.
Goal.com: You said that the league will have to invest more money in talent, when do you see that happening? How do you envision those changes?
Checketts: The collective bargaining agreement is up in a couple of years, and I hope we get past it and keep the league going in the right direction. That’ll be very important. I know I didn’t answer the question, but the reality is, this is a growing league and it’s growing for a number of good reasons and we have to be careful abut that growth, and make sure we don’t make mistakes that were made in the NASL.
Goal.com: Where do you see the league in 5 to 10 years?
Checketts: I don’t know if it will pass the NBA or MLB – maybe the NHL – but I do know it’ll be a very strong league with 15, 16 soccer-specific stadiums in major markets. The talk of one in Flushing, Queens is very interesting because I love New York and New York loves soccer. Other cities trying to come into the party are very attractive and very international. I’d like to think in 5 to 10 years that have 20, 22, 24 teams perhaps and lot of soccer specific stadiums and franchises worth a couple hundred million dollars.
Goal.com: How will the composition of squads change over that same 5 to 10 year timeframe? How competitive will the league be?
Checketts: They will be represented by all kinds of countries because of the quality of life. The US is very attractive. But I hope by then, through the academy programs, we develop a lot more talent from the US. We can do it too, but only with the right kind of coaching. That said, the dollars will be have to be there for these coaches to come make a living, then we’ll develop a lot more players.
Goal.com: With the regular season winding down, what are the most pressing topics for MLS that warrant thorough, serious discussions?
Checketts: The number one item, and I’m not trying to set priorities that’s up to the commissioner, but the schedule is always a difficult issues because of international play. It will be especially difficult in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. When some teams lose 5 or 6 players, crucial players, playing scheduled games is very tough. I know the commissioner is thinking about that, and I certainly am as well.
Player compensation and the Designated Player rules also need to be addressed in the off-season. Finally, we need to talk about expansion: not to expand too fast, but expand appropriate to the level of interest. I think all of the owners want to be really careful that we welcome very strong franchises capable of carrying their own weight.
Goal.com: Thanks very much for talking with us. Good luck on Thursday night.
Checketts: Thanks.
John Mantia is a new contributor to Goal.com.
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