Real Salt Lake to Celebrate my birthday with a World Cup Qualifier
USA vs El Salvador
It was just a few months ago that I was hoping that Real Salt Lake would play host to El Salvador on Sept. 5th and sure enough it was announced today that we will be hosting that match and while US Soccer hasn’t updated their site, but the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting it and it was announced on the official blog of RSL “Behind the Shield“.
This is exciting news and will make for a heck of a good Labor Day weekend, and depending on how the USMNT is doing this could easily be the match that clinches their place in the 2010 World Cup. While this match will not be part of the 2009 RSL season ticket package there was some other good news announced today. Season ticket holders will get first crack at buying their seats for this huge match.
2009 MLS All Star Match part of RSL season ticket package
After being told a number of times that the All Star match would not be part of our season ticket package, today RSL announced via the Fan Experience email newsletter that the match would indeed be part of the package. This is great and given the landing of the World Cup Qualifier match, I knew that there would not any chance of getting both matches as part of our season ticket package.
This match will be exciting, and I am waiting to see what team will be announced as the international portion of this match. Despite the economy I expect that one of four teams will be the final choice:
- Real Madrid- this would allow RSL to reestablish the relationship with one of the top brands in all of professional sports, and they are secure in second place in La Liga (12 points out of first, and 9 points ahead of third). This would also allow Real to deliver on the cancelled match from last year.
- Barcelona- with the pending announcement of FC Miami being officially announced as part of the 2011 MLS Expansion, I expect this on opening weekend it would be great way to promote the huge partnership between MLS and Barcelona. Given that fact that there are so many huge names on their roster it would be a great chance for MLS to sell a lot of jerseys.
- Chelsea- despite their struggles in the EPL, if you can call being 4th struggling and the firing of Scolari there is no doubt that they are one of the most famous clubs in the world. I have heard a number of rumors that they might be making a trip across the pond this summer.
- AC Milan- if Beck’s is traded from LA to Milan, look for a lot of money to change hands and for AC Milan to make a trip this summer to the States and it would be appropriate to get Becks back into a MLS match.
More Big news from RSL
So part of the reason I bought 5 season tickets for the 2009 season was knowledge that today’s announcement would be coming, today RSL announced that they will be using the Veritix Flash Seats® system. This system will allow ticket holders a cool way to resell or transfer their tickets and allow both buyers and sellers to be secure in the transaction. We will be the first MLS team to use this technology and the first event that it will work for is the Eagles concert on May 9th. You can take a look at how the system will work by going to the live site here how nice will this be if you can’t make it to a match and don’t want to wait for one of the three exchange dates:
May 16th vs. Kansas City Wizards
June 27th vs. Toronto FC
Oct. 14th vs. New York Red Bulls
So what does this mean to you as a fan, well even without the cool resell/transfer options. It means that you will be able to go paperless and use a credit card (you enter as ID on your account) to gain access to the stadium. This also means that RSL will be able to get some great data on their customers, which always is helpful for organizations.
If that were not enough news for you single match tickets go on sale next week on the 17th and season ticket holders get the group discount rate which ranges from 3-10 dollars depending on what seats you are buying. But wait there is more, yes RSL announced that March 14th will be their 2009 Season Kick Off Event where season ticket holders will be able to pick up their season tickets.
But wait there is more, OK this next bit of news does nothing for me, but I am sure someone out there will be happy with the announcement that on July 23rd country music star Kenny Chesney will be in concert at Rio Tinto, ticket details will be announced soon. Now for me this one will be the biggest test of the multiuse capabilities of Rio Tinto because RSL will be playing host to Western Conference rival FC Dallas on the 24th. How will our beautiful pitch do with all the rowdy rednecks spilling beer and spitting chew all over the place, thank god for steam pressure cleaners in the stands.
USA vs. Mexico
I am still working on my preview of tomorrows huge USA vs. Mexico match in Columbus, I am hoping to post it either tonight or tomorrow prior to the match.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on February 10, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.