Real Salt Lake Owner Dell Loy Hansen joined The Bill & OC Show on Tuesday after the announcement that the club would restructure its front office staff after mutually parting ways with former club President Bill Manning.
In an interview full of optimism for the future of the club on and off the field, Hansen first explained the departure of Manning, a two-time MLS Executive of the Year who originally came to Salt Lake in 2008.
“When Bill’s contract was originally put together, Real was a much smaller organization and it was a very hierarchical contract that basically had Bill running all the visions of the team – the team, business, tickets, operations. It was designed for a smaller organization,” Hansen said. “Through the years that I’ve been here, Bill believed that the contract was the one that he wanted and it really kept the organization in a very tight pyramid that made it difficult to grow the organization to a broader sports organization.”
Since 2008, Hansen explained, the organization has grown from 48 people on staff to 120 now, covering Real Salt Lake and Real Monarchs SLC of the USL.
Under the new structure, Hansen has five key “lieutenants” who will head different departments and report to him. Included in that restructure will be an expansion of the soccer staff to include scouts and stats analysts while Technical Director Craig Waibel will oversee the sporting side of the business, possibly as General Manager.
“Part of the change is that we can get more professional in our analytical and scouting skills than we were in the past,” Hansen said. “We have a completely different competition than RSL faced in ’05, ’06 and ’07. The smaller teams will either have to evolve or fall to a lower rung. This is a rapidly evolving league that is getting much more talented quickly and RSL has really got to invest deeply into the growth of our academies, our USL team, our scouting and the depth of our team.”
Hansen also remained optimistic about Real Salt Lake’s chances for the remainder of the 2015 season. Currently six points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference at 7-10-8 with nine matches left on the schedule, RSL also has a chance to advance in the CONCACAF Champions League after winning its first Group Stage match against Municipal in Guatemala.
“We feel very good about the remaining nine games of the season and we’re playing for broke. Everyone is still committed to make the playoffs. We are committed to moving on in CONCACAF. And we ended up in the top four of the Open Cup. It’s nothing to hang our heads about,” Hansen said. “We just know that there are areas that we can improve and it isn’t hitting the reset button at all. It’s looking at a great team and seeing how we can improve that team with more resources and filling in the holes that are rather obvious.”
To hear the full interview with Hansen, click here.
