October 4, 2004

Salt Lake's MLS Team is Real

Utah Soccer founder and chairman David Checketts announced his club's identity in a press conference Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Through a hail of confetti Checketts announced the new team name Real (pronounced Ray-al) Salt Lake and described what he and the rest of the organization hope to represent. "As we think about what we want our organization to stand for, we have developed several themes," Checketts said. "We want it to be world-class. We want it to make Salt Lake even more of an international city. We want it to be passionate and visionary. We want it to be a great unifier to bring people in Salt Lake City together. We have regal aspirations." Thus, Real Salt Lake was born. Real means "royal" in Spanish and is used by many clubs throughout the world.

To help combine the theme of royalty with local and soccer-specific symbolism, the club incorporated Real Gold into its color scheme, which also features Claret Red -- meant to signify the passion of the local fans -- and Cobalt Blue -- intended to represent the surrounding mountains and lakes. The team Saturday also unveiled its shield, which features the Real word mark atop the RSL ligature, with a crown above the "e" in Real. The team also unveiled its uniform kits.

Utah Youth Soccer is proud to welcome Real Salt Lake to Utah. Paul C. Burke, UYSA's President said, "Major League Soccer will bring soccer heroes to Utah for our youth players to watch and emulate. We encourage our members to support Real Salt Lake and look forward to seeing the stands of Rice-Eccles Stadium filled with youth soccer players."