Making Of A Moment

While Amy Donaldson was researching and reporting this podcast, she found Dell Loy Hansen to be one of the most polarizing figures she'd written about in three decades as a journalist. 

And it isn’t just that he has vocal critics or ardent supporters it’s that even those who worked closest with him, those who knew him best find it difficult to neatly or easily summarize his impact on professional soccer which, like it or not, extends far beyond Utah and one could argue even the U.S. 

Without him, Real Salt Lake might not have become financially stable enough to enjoy those golden years after the MLS Cup championship of 2009. Without him, Checketts may have been forced to sell the team in 2013 to owners who wanted to move it to a bigger market. Without him, the training facilities, The Academy, the Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman - none of that would exist

Real Salt Lake coach and former player Pablo Mastroeni was able to sit down with Amy on two occasions to talk about his journey and his philosophies on being a coach, being a player and just life in general. One thing that is so good about these two interviews with Pablo, is that his advice and ideas can help anyone who is trying to go somewhere. 

Real Salt Lake's magical run comes to an end, but not with the fairy tale ending everyone hoped to have. There are massive changes for RSL after the 2021 season - a coach is hired, the club finds and owner, and key players depart. The team, staff and the players are left to reflect: What does it all mean? If winning is the ultimate goal in professional sports, what other measurements matter? 

There is no player who embodies the culture of Real Salt Lake than Kyle Beckerman. When he was traded from Colorado to Utah in 2007, he instantly changed the culture of RSL’s locker room. He captained the team from 2008 until he retired in 2020. Beckerman has seen the club through its rise to glory - and through its bleakest times. This episode gives you more of his background, his time in Colorado where RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni became his friend and mentor and what it was like to try and win soccer games when the front office was in chaos.

When Real Salt Lake’s head coach stuns everyone by quitting with 10 weeks left in the season, he leaves the team in the hands of a man RSL fans once loved to hate. And despite his unsavory history with the club, he seems uniquely suited to lead a team without an owner, picked to finish last, and abandoned by their head coach in August of 2021 to an unlikely playoff berth. All he has to do is lead Real Salt Lake to a win on the road on the last day of the regular season.

Dave Checketts was working for the NBA when he fell in love with soccer while traveling in Europe. He decided he wanted to build a club in his home state of Utah, but he had no idea the obstacles and heartache he’d face. This is more of the conversation we had with Checketts on the hurdles he faced building the team and why he had to sell his dream.

Real Salt Lake’s new owner - Dell Loy Hansen - called the club “a state trust” and hoped his contribution to soccer in Utah would become his legacy. He invested millions in a development academy, training facilities, a minor league team and eventually a National Women’s Soccer League club. But players and staff said RSL shifted from a familial ideal to a more transactional organization, and a toxic culture took hold and infected every aspect of the club. Even those who saw it, who hated it, who tried to do something about it, were powerless to create meaningful change. Things shifted when Hansen spoke out in a radio interview where he not only revealed that rot, he also lit a match that threatened to consume everything he’d built.

Brian Dunseth played for six different MLS clubs over the course of his career including a season with the Real Salt Lake. “Dunny" is one of the most recognizable people in soccer in America. He was the captain of the 2000 U.S. Olympic soccer team and is an MLS analyst for TNT, Apple TV, host on Sirius XM and co-host of the Week in Tackle podcast.  In this conversation with Amy Donaldson, Dunny talks about what it was like adjusting to life after professional sports and he reflects on the aftermath when RSL owner Dell Loy Hansen sold the team.  

Professional soccer got its start in Utah thanks to the visionary leadership and relentless will of an NBA executive. It was Utah native Dave Checketts who bought an MLS franchise and decided to put it in his home state. He fought political and financial battles to establish a club that would do what no other professional sports franchise in Utah has ever managed to do - win a championship. But while sports aficionados are fond of saying “there is no problem winning can’t solve”, that turned out not to be true for RSL and Dave Checketts.

August 27, 2020 is a day Real Salt Lake faithful and staff remember well - but not for what happened on the pitch. That’s the day the smallest Major League Soccer team was thrown into chaos by the man who once saved the club from financial ruin - their billionaire owner.

But what most fans didn’t realize is that when Real Salt Lake made an unlikely playoff run in 2021, the seeds for that moment were planted during that 2020 crisis. A crisis that led to the owner’s downfall.

In sports there are moments that transcend a single game. What if you knew all that went into how that on-field moment was created? The Real Salt Lake is an iconic soccer team. It wasn't always that way. This season, host Amy Donaldson looks at the RSL's unlikely 2021 playoff run. That post-season performance from a team expected to finish last is much more than the Cinderella story witnessed by RSL faithful. It’s the story of an underdog club engaged in a fight for survival off the field, while trying to prove they deserved to compete for a championship. Coming October 21st, 2024.