HERRIMAN, Utah -- Real Salt Lake announced plans for a $50 million training complex in Herriman Saturday, and they also stated they intend to build smaller youth training facilities in North Logan, Ogden and West Valley City.
The new facility will be on a 42-acre plot in Herriman, about 20 minutes west of Rio Tinto Stadium, according to the press release from Real Salt Lake.
"As an organization, we believe that building this gathering place from ground up, developing local talent, and training that talent to an elite level, will lead to stronger connection and ultimate success," said Dell Loy Hansen, the owner of RSL.
The team plans to break ground on the facility in late April, and the press release states it will house the daily training facilities for RSL as well as the United Soccer League's Real Monarch's.
The facility will also be an extension of the team's U-18 and U-16 USSFDA Academy setups. The release states the future possibilities may include a Women's professional team and other youth development age groups.
Herriman City Mayor Carmen Freeman said they are excited about the plans, which shoot for an August 2017 completion date.
"It's going to mean a lot for Herriman, we're going to bring soccer to a different dimension," Freeman said.
The plans for the facility include eight fields, one of which will be for Herriman city's public use.
Four of the fields will have natural grass and will be outdoors. The other three fields used by RSL will have an artificial surface, and two of those three fields will be housed in a 208,000 square-foot structure.
The release states those two fields will be inside the, "largest pre-engineered freespan building in North America. Atop this building will be a solar panel array from Auric Solar, roughly half the size of its Rio Tinto Stadium installation."
There will also be a 77,000 square-foot STEM charter school, which will be developed by Utah State University and will have space for 250 students. A portion of the students will be boarded on-site and will come from out of state, with the release stating the goal is to create the "Harvard of Soccer."
Hansen said they wanted to take a giant leap.
"We decided, instead of taking baby steps, lets just take the big steps and get there," he said.
The press release also announces the creation of the RSL Youth Academy Foundation, a non-profit organization that will create the youth training centers. The plan is for $2 million indoor/outdoor facilities for youth soccer, with the first three planned for North Logan, Ogden and West Valley City.
Phase II would see similar facilities in Orem and St. George. The facilities will include classrooms and offer RSL-designed curriculum to more than 60,000 players, coaches and referees for athletes 14 and younger.
"Our collective passion about building this community is at the core of everything we do, with my job being to guide the group and lead us in how we connect to the community of nearly 10 million people across Utah and Arizona," Hansen stated. "I'm Salt Lake, I'm Utah, this is what I care about, and this is what the RSL values reflect, the club rooted civically in the community with everyone invited as a point of unification."
