soccer stadium

The D'News Farewell Tour kept rolling on Thursday, as I toured Real Salt Lake's new soccer stadium today.

This stadium was the bane of my existence for a few years running there, as I swear I wrote a story every day for about two years about the funding issues related to the stadium.

I didn't think I'd ever get the behind the scenes tour, since I'm leaving the paper before it opens. But luckily Mayor Peter Corroon had a scheduled tour today, so I tagged along.


The stadium is really nice. Mayor Corroon described it in one word: "Luxurious." It made me wish I could afford the fancy club seats. Folks rich enough to buy those seats get a private lounge, a private entrance, cushy seats in a special section, and they get to walk out onto the field every game through the player tunnel. Jealous.

I was snapping pictures of myself in random spots throughout the stadium, but this one is by far my favorite. The mayor popped in and made the picture.

To end the tour, we walked all the way up to the cat walk in the canopy pictured below. They tell us the governor was too chicken to do it, but we did it!


It was fun to see the finished product of a concept I've been writing about for years.