All off-season, Rio Tinto Stadium has been undergoing a bit of a facelift and on Saturday the bandages come off in the Winter Open House.
Highlighted by the unveiling of the new, state-of-the-art video board at the south end of the stadium, the afternoon will also feature appearances with select players, a Q&A session with new Technical Director Craig Waibel and will highlight some of the exclusive opportunities available for season ticket holders.
UPDATE: Waibel (1:30) will be followed by Jamison Olave (2:00), Joao Plata (2:30), Boyd Okwuonu (3:00) and Phanuel Kavita (3:30). Olave is back with RSL after two seasons with the New York Red Bulls. Plata is coming off of a breakout season that saw him lead the team with 13 goals. Okwuonu is Salt Lake's first pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, a defender from the University of North Carolina. And Kavita is a Salt Lake City native that signed as a Homegrown player after four seasons at Clemson University.
The high-definition board more than triples the video surface area of the current north end screen, and will provide nearly 4,200 square feet of 13HD pixel resolution, larger than any other board used in Major League Soccer in 2014.
Manufactured by Daktronics, Inc. - the world's industry leader in designing and manufacturing electronic scoreboards, programmable display systems and large screen video displays - installation on the new board began in mid-September and this will mark the first time it will be utilized for Real Salt Lake’s fans.
The Real Salt Lake team store will open at 10 am and doors open for the Open House at 12:45. Tours begin at 1 pm and will feature a tour of the locker room that will be used by the RSL’s USL affiliate, Real Monarchs.