Real Salt Lake: Craig Waibel’s moment has arrived — he’s now RSL’s new GM

Sandy • Picture Craig Waibel at a Black Eyed Peas concert. Then picture him at a Gwen Stefani concert. These worlds actually collided the exact same night nearly 10 years ago in San Jose, Calif.

Then 30, a right back who already owned two MLS Cup trophies with two more eventually on the way, Waibel was inside what was then San Jose's HP Pavilion — he still calls it the "Shark Tank" — and was blown away by the Black Eyed Peas.

It was the debut concert tour for the hip-hop faction. The night was setting up well for itself for the main event. But the openers surpassed Stefani's headlining performance. The sound wasn't good, the vibe was off and Waibel left disgruntled.

That night remains a lesson for Waibel and serves as a constant reminder — whether on stage or on the pitch — you've got to deliver the goods every night.

Ten years later, Waibel's latest role in the "entertainment business," as he calls it, is conducted in slacks and a polo shirt. The cleats are long gone. The days of cleaning out guys at midfield to slow down a counterattack or jawing away on the pitch? Also gone.

On Thursday, Waibel was named the new general manager of Real Salt Lake. The job is his to provide a product worthy for RSL's devoted fans and, most importantly, one that provides lots of wins.

"The fans get to have a game-by-game vision of our team," Waibel said. "That's exactly what I do when I watch basketball, when I watch baseball, when I watch football; it's exactly what I do when I go to a movie, when I go to a concert."

However, he added, "That's not my job here. My job's to control the long-term vision and plan."

RSL owner Dell Loy Hansen also promoted Real Monarchs president Rob Zarkos to RSL vice president for soccer administration, calling his new duo the linchpins for his organization.

"Craig and Rob are extraordinarily bright, successful individuals, now empowered to permeate their winning, responsible track records throughout the club," Hansen said in a statement. "By bolstering the human resources on the soccer side, Waibel, Zarkos and many others will provide the energy and vision needed to further evolve this club forward ... to keep RSL at the forefront of MLS for the foreseeable future."

Where does Waibel start? Time will tell.

RSL's foundation was poured under Jason Kreis, Garth Lagerwey, Bill Manning and Dave Checketts nearly a decade ago. They're all gone now, ushering in the next phase of RSL's evolution — under Waibel. And he acknowledges it will be a challenge.

"[When] change comes, the natural instinct is you get defensive, you protect what you have, you fight," he said. "When you get backed into a corner, you fight your way out. This is just the natural fear that comes with change. Whether or not we get it right on the first shot — I don't know. There's tough decisions to be made, though. That's for sure."

Like the RSL front office, the club's roster is undergoing its own evolution, a word Waibel comes back to often when describing his promotion from the technical-director role. The original RSL core brought in by Kreis and Lagerwey in 2007 is aging and dwindling. The only remaining players from the 2009 MLS Cup winning roster are captain Kyle Beckerman, 33; goalkeeper Nick Rimando, 36; midfielder Javier Morales, 35; and defenders Tony Beltran, 27; and Jamison Olave, 34.

Long an outsider to the RSL circle, Waibel thought the previous regime kept the original core together for the right reasons. Which leads to the question: Is it time to start building a new core?

"There's no question," Waibel said.

Players he was hoping to see step into those positions hasn't happened this year, whether due to individual performance, relationships with the coaching staff, tactics, injuries, you name it. It hasn't worked out the way he hoped. RSL enters this Saturday's match at FC Dallas, the latest "must-win" outing, tied for seventh place in the West, three points out of the final playoff slot.

"We need to add players that we believe can become part of the next core group, but that complement the players we've retained and believe in," he said.

The quality of players he'll pursue remain the same as those pursued and signed under Kreis and Lagerwey. At the unveiling of his first major signing, 29-year-old Argentine Juan Manuel Martinez, Waibel said, "There's a lot of great players in the world — a lot of them don't fit here."

The team in the smallest market in MLS can't afford a revolving door, Waibel said, hence the need for younger, talented players to maintain the success that was originally cultivated here. An acquisition like Martinez helps, grabbing a player who spent the last two years at arguably the best South American club around — Boca Juniors.

"You don't have to fulfill all of the boxes that we need to fulfill to attract the top-level players, which we're putting together," Waibel said. "We're reevaluating this going forward because our roster right now is not anywhere near — if you look at it — it's nowhere near where it needs to be [for] sustainability."

Before his first trip back to Utah since leaving the club for the Seattle Sounders in the offseason, Lagerwey reiterated his faith in Waibel and Cassar.

"They're both young in their jobs, and I hope they're given time to grow into their roles," Lagerwey said. "Those guys are both really good, and they're going to get better and better."

To Waibel, the departures of Kreis, Lagerwey and Manning were part of the evolution of the club. Kreis left to coach an expansion club owned and funded by Manchester City. Lagerwey went to arguably the most popular club in MLS, with a budget Waibel calls "eternal." Manning's next move could be in a high-profile club, too. He was seen on TV in a booth with Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo during last Saturday's match against Philadelphia.

"I'm going to be held to the higher standard," Waibel said. "Is that necessarily what I would ask for? No. I would ask to be held to a very low standard and then anything I did well would be considered great. But I'm not scared of the standards they set. That's called following excellence, and you either have the courage to do it or you don't. I'm going to take some things [on] the chin here. It's called life."

ckamrani@sltrib.com

Twitter: @chriskamrani