REAL SALT LAKE BREAKS GROUND ON AMERICA FIRST FIELD PRACTICE FACILITY
IN SANDY
New Training Field Located Just a Mile
South of Rio Tinto Stadium to Open in Spring/Summer of 2012
SANDY, Utah (Thursday, May 12, 2011) – At a groundbreaking ceremony earlier today, Real Salt Lake President Bill Manning announced that Utah’s Major League Soccer side will utilize America First Field in Sandy as its new training ground beginning in the spring/summer of 2012.
Located just a mile south of its Rio Tinto Stadium home, America First Field will boast 110,000-square-feet of natural grass surface laser-graded to within a ¼ inch – just like the team’s gameday playing surface – and seeded with the exact same turf mixture that currently occupies the team’s 2 ½-year old stadium venue. Rio Tinto Stadium is where the 2009 MLS Cup Champions and 2011 CONCACAF Champions League Finalist have posted a 33-3-11 mark across MLS regular-season, MLS Cup Playoff, CONCACAF and exhibition play, outscoring opponents 96-26 on aggregate.
America First Field is located on 10000 South just west of State Street, putting the field in the shadows of Sandy City Hall and the South Towne Market Place shopping center. After a three-month process to prepare the new site, grass seed will be laid down on the land currently owned by America First Credit Union – a local partner of Real Salt Lake since the team’s inception in 2005 – and leased to RSL for at least the next five years. Pending weather this fall and winter, Real Salt Lake is hopeful to begin utilizing the field full-time for its first-team training sessions and MLS Reserve League contests by late next spring.
www.RealSaltLake.com
/ www.RioTintoStadium.com / www.ESPN700Sports.com
