"Once they actually experience a game in there, they're going to be more than satisfied," he said. "It's just a great venue."
That's exactly what RSL believes, as it prepares to play its inaugural game at Rio Tinto Stadium against the New York Red Bulls on
Thursday night.
Far from alienating fans by moving 15 miles south from where it has played for most of its four years in Major League Soccer, the team expects to both retain almost all of its current season-ticket holders and begin appealing to a broad new range of fans toward the south end of the Salt Lake Valley, for whom commuting to Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah was never palatable.
"I'm very bullish on where we're going to be on our season tickets," team president Bill Manning said.
Manning expects 95 percent of RSL's 6,200 or so season-ticket holders to renew their seats for next season in the new stadium - 81 percent already have done so - and said the team has sold nearly 600 season tickets to fans who had never before purchased them.
General manager Garth Lagerwey said he has heard from few fans so unhappy with the team that they do not plan to follow it out to Sandy, and said RSL hopes to set a league record for the increase of season-ticket holders from one year to the next.
"Right now, I think the buzz is all about how cool the stadium looks," he said.
Certainly, the $110 million stadium will enjoy a two-hour national commercial when ESPN2 televises the inaugural game, with broadcasters no doubt raving about the intimate setting, international-style player tunnel and stylish canopy roof. Manning said season-ticket holders have been so excited at the prospect of enjoying games there that they have spent 89 percent more money than they did buying tickets at Rice-Eccles Stadium, because they wanted more and better seats.
"What I always find . . . is fans will pay, when they get value," Manning said. "We've given private tours in this building, and we've had people come in and we had them sit down in their seats, and they say, 'I'm willing to pay extra money for this.' "
And at least some seem happy with the change of location.
"The stadium puts the team in a higher position," said RSL fan Marco Antonio RamÃrez. "Now it seems like something big, something with more quality. . . . I live in West Valley and it'll be closer."
Not everybody is elated at the prospect, however.
Season-ticket holder Jim Riddle of Orem complained to RSL that for season-tickets in the new stadium, he would have had to pay more than double what he had paid for the same seats in the fourth row near midfield at Rice-Eccles Stadium. He could not afford to do so, and said he felt misled after helping RSL push for the stadium by lobbying legislative leaders and defending the team during the long and acrimonious public debate over whether the structure should be built.
"After all that, I am priced out of the seats that I have had all along," he wrote in an e-mail. "Now I have to give up my great seats in the awesome stadium that we will be so proud of so someone else with a bigger wallet than me can take them. So, yeah . . . I am a little disgruntled."
mcl@sltrib.com
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* Ahora Utah reporter
J. CARLOS ARTILES contributed to this story.
TODAY: RSL moves from the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium to its new digs in Sandy on Thursday. Will the fans follow them?
* TUESDAY: RSL players will be excited to play in Rio Tinto Stadium for the first time, but there will be pressure to win. How have other MLS teams fared when opening new stadiums?
* WEDNESDAY: While Rio Tinto Stadium should provide a better home-field advantage for RSL, there will be adjustments. How will playing on a differently dimensioned and grass-covered field affect the team stylistically and strategically?
* THURSDAY: "Welcome to our House." RSL opens Rio Tinto Stadium against the New York Red Bulls, beginning a new era for RSL and soccer in Utah.
