Salt Lake soccer spectatorship

Soccer spectatorship returning to Salt Lake City. Photo: Courtesy of Vienna Reyes

SANDY, Utah. — Rio Tinto Stadium, affectionately dubbed “The RIOT” by its dedicated fanbase, will once again welcome its fans back the watch their beloved Real Salt Lake. The stadium’s stagnation due to COVID policy will end with its home-opener on Saturday, May 1st. Real Salt Lake (RSL) will host Sporting Kansas City (SKC) in that game for which a waitlist exists for ticketing according to its website.

The stadium, which was built to holds 20, 213 people, will seat 10,000 during this soft-opening phase. In conjunction with Major League Soccer (MLS), Real Salt Lake (RSL) plans a 2021 regular-season schedule that features a 34-game slate.

At its onset, the MLS team RSL was named out of reverence to European futbol powerhouse Real Madrid.

Should Salt Lake City win a bid to become a future host city for the Olympic Winter Games, discussions continue to circulate as to the added attractiveness of holding uniquely old-school-meets-new-school outdoor ice hockey events at the Rio Tinto venue.