"This stadium's going to demand nothing less than a winning team," Beckerman said after a recent practice.
It certainly would be worthy of hosting a Major League Soccer playoff game, the first of its kind in Utah.
Rice-Eccles Stadium successfully staged elaborate ceremonies to open and close the 2002 Olympics and was home to an unbeaten college football team two years later. But it is a football stadium, not a football venue. With an artificial surface that's hardly suited to soccer, yard lines and logos that appeared as if a fourth-grader had colored over them and a field squeezed between the seats, everything about the setting of RSL's first four seasons of existence cried out "temporary."
Beginning this week, with the opening of Rio Tinto Stadium, Real becomes more and more permanent in the Salt Lake Valley.
Even beyond the striking features, special touches and other accommodations to fans, that's what this stadium means: This team is here to stay.
"All the work and all the emotion that went into building this place , it's uplifting," said coach Jason Kreis, an original Real player. "It's always been a difficult situation. I don't think we've ever been on level ground with the rest of the clubs. . . . Once you see this, it's like, 'Yeah, this club's here for the long term.' ²
RSL may never be widely embraced among traditional sports fans, and the effects of all the fighting and dealing that went into getting the stadium built still resonate throughout the valley. Even after Beckham participated in the supposed groundbreaking ceremony in August 2006 when his Real Madrid team played an exhibition game against RSL, there still were many obstacles to overcome.
But the finished product is worth everything it took to make it a reality. For those who wondered if this thing would - or should - ever happen, the proof is here: It's Real's, and it's spectacular.
Nobody's sure how long the novelty of the stadium itself will drive interest in the team. At some point, as Beckerman suggested, the players will have to do their part. They could start by making the playoffs this month, helping to christen the stadium with some postseason play.
Regardless, RSL's two remaining regular-season games, plus a USA Rugby doubleheader and a junior college football bowl game should prove attractive to anyone interested in getting a glimpse of the facility.
RSL owner Dave Checketts drew from his experiences at soccer stadiums in Europe and the other venues being built by MLS teams to incorporate some remarkable features.
It starts at the top, with roofs on the east and west sides resembling waving canopies, to provide some weather protection and help keep the sounds in the stadium. The bottom also is impressive, with perfect, natural grass and a drainage system modeled after Augusta National Golf Club's.
The seats themselves are nothing special, but every one is chairback style. To me, the best view is from the top row of the east side's second deck, still relatively close to the field. As for the premium sections, club seat-holders will have access to a patio just 12 rows from the field, and members of the exclusive Center Circle club can watch the players walk in and out of the midfield tunnel at halftime.
In the northwest corner, a grand staircase that Checketts copied from Rome may eventually become part of the main entrance. He also wants to create a fountain on the east side, with an indented globe illustrating the locations of the world's most famous soccer clubs.
He's pretty much thought of everything. There's even a platform leading from the owner's suite out over the seats, where awards presentations can be staged. If and when anything like that happens is up to the players, but there's no doubt that they now have a stadium worthy of anything they can do in it.
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KURT KRAGTHORPE can be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
