Real Salt Lake

Real estate developer Dell Loy Hansen could scarcely have been happier when he was introduced as RSL's new co-owner at a press conference at Rio Tinto Stadium today.

“This is one of those rare opportunities that just trips into somebody's life,” he said.

Having purchased a 49 percent stake in the team, Hansen was beaming when he accepted a framed RSL jersey with his name on the back, and thrilled to the idea that he can be part of a franchise that will play for the MLS Cup championship against the Los Angeles Galaxy in Seattle on Sunday. He was even still hoarse from cheering the team in the MLS Eastern Conference final last weekend.

Sure, he induced some winces when he twice referred to the team as “Salt Lake Real." And he sounded more than a little mistaken — perhaps he simply misspoke — when he wondered, "how many times has a team from Utah played for a championship?"

"In my 56 years, I think there may have been a questionable ABA deal," he said. "But the Jazz have never got there."

In the end, though, his massive investment — probably around $52 million, a figure team officials did not dispute — will allow majority owner Dave Checketts to pay down “substantial debt,” put some finishing touches on the stadium and build a practice field within blocks of Rio Tinto. All things that figure to make the team stronger in the long run; Checketts promised to keep all of the proceeds of the transaction within the RSL company.

“Real will be a stronger, better, championship franchise — I believe — because Dave invited me in to help him,” Hansen said.

That invitation, incidentally, came during a fund-raiser for Sandy mayor Tom Dolan that Checketts held, as part of a party to watch the United States play a qualifying game for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Seated with Checketts and Michael Eisner, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Hansen said he listened to Checketts try to interest Eisner in buying a piece of the team.

“You really can't treat me like chopped liver,” Hansen recalled thinking. “I'm sitting right by this conversation! So they lean over and say, 'Maybe you'd like a piece.' I says, 'Yeah, I think I would.' And over the next eight weeks, I was just a little quicker to the punch than Michael Eisner.”

However it worked out, Hansen also happily noted that he has yet to see the team lose, having started attending games only since RSL began the stunning four-game winning streak that earned it a shot at the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup final. He urged the team not to change that now.

“You just couldn't have picked a more magical time,” he said.

Still thinking you can't afford to get to the MLS Cup?

One of RSL's top sponsors is doing its best to help out. JetBlue Airways is offering what is being described as an “extremely limited” offer for a $99 one-way fare from Salt Lake City to Seattle. Flights will connect down in Long Beach, but the price is a lot better than anything that seems to be available on a regular commercial flight.

The offer opens at 2 p.m. today. Fans who are interested should call 1-800-JETBLUE — the fares are not available online — and mention the promotional code “Real.” Outbound flights are available on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, with returns either Monday or Tuesday.

Just in case anybody isn't quite sure about the build-up to MLS Cup in Seattle this weekend, here's a little taste of how one of the local landmarks are getting ready. Yes, that's the top of the Space Needle.

Pretty cool, eh?

Oh, and here's an amusing read about the phenomenon of teams with losing records such as RSL reaching the league championship game — though the report leaves out coach Jason Kreis' equally amusing initial reaction to a question about it. And speaking of Kreis, here's one of our columns today about his maturation as a coach.

“He used to get so emotional,” midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. “During one game last year, he yelled at us at halftime because we weren't playing well. When we came back to win, there were tears involved. This year, he lets us see things for ourselves, he lets us figure things out. We went seven games this season without winning, and he was positive with us the whole time. We came out successful, and he had a lot to do with that.”

Looks like RSL fans will have a home away from home during MLS Cup in Seattle.

On the suggestion of a certain blogger who has enjoyed a post-game cocktail or two in the Emerald City, team officials have secured the downtown bar FX McRory's Steak Chop & Oyster House as the official RSL headquarters this weekend. It's directly across the street from the stadium to the north, on Occidental, and has been a wildly popular sports hangout for years -- memorialized in a famous Leroy Neiman painting, pictured above.

Normally, the place is a Sounders bar — as evidenced by a visit after RSL lost to the Sounders in its season-opener last spring.

But owners have agreed to allow RSL become the home team for the weekend, and decorate the place with team paraphernalia. Team officials have reserved half the bar for RSL fans on Saturday night starting at 7, and fans and their families will be able to order off the full food menu and pay their own checks.

Evidently, the bar could not specifically reserve any space for RSL before the big game on Sunday — the NFL's Seahawks are playing at Minnesota that day — but fans could conceivably pack the place on their own if they arrive early enough. The bar opens at 10 that morning (same time the Seahawks kick off), and RSL officials have been assured that their team gear will be allowed to decorate the place all weekend.

Remember that tiny little trophy that the New York Red Bulls hoisted after beating RSL in the MLS Western Conference final last year?

Owner Dave Checketts does.

That's why he said he lobbied the league and commissioner Don Garber for the much larger one that Checketts wound up cradling in the locker room after the RSL dispatched the Chicago Fire in the MLS Eastern Conference final last weekend.

“I sent Garber a note” last year, Checketts recalled. “I said, 'It's a good thing we didn't win, because I would not have accepted that 'tea cup.'”

Checketts followed up with the commissioner just before RSL went to the Eastern Conference final.

“I sent him another note, and I said, 'I'm not meaning to jinx anybody, but did we take care of the 'tea cup' problem?” Checketts said. “And he wrote back and said, 'very funny. Yes, [we] shipped a beautiful, gleaming, giant cup to Chicago.' So I said, 'OK, great.' And we did get it.”

Now that RSL has it, Checketts said he's inclined to put it on display either near the entrance to the offices at Rio Tinto Stadium or in the “Club Real” restaurant on the second floor. “It's a beautiful cup,” he said.