Dell Loy Hansen | |
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Born | 1951or1952(age 72–73) Salina, Utah, U.S. |
Known for | Ownership of Real Salt Lake |
Dell Loy Hansen (born 1951or1952) [1] is an American businessman and sports team owner. He is the founder and CEO of Wasatch Group, a real estate investment firm, and was the owner of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer.
Hansen was born in Salina, Utah, and raised in southern Utah by his father, working for the Soil Conservation Service, and his mother, a schoolteacher. [2] [3] He graduated from the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in political science. [1] [4]
Hansen started a home-building business that closed during a savings and loan crisis in 1988. [3] Hansen founded the Wasatch Group later that year, taking over government-seized real estate from the Resolution Trust Corporation for resale. The company later expanded into commercial office development and management, including the ownership of high-rise buildings in the Salt Lake City area. [1] Hansen also acquired a large parcel in Bellevue, Washington, that was developed into Washington Square in the 2000s. [5] As of 2013 [update] , the Wasatch Group manages 65 properties in the Western United States, worth an estimated $1.3 billion, and employs 500 people. [1] [6] Hansen also owns Broadway Media, which manages several radio stations in Utah. [7]
Hansen bought a minority stake in the ownership of Major League Soccer franchise Real Salt Lake in 2009 from Dave Checketts. His involvement with the club began with a political fundraiser at Rio Tinto Stadium during a U.S. men's national team match, his second time watching live soccer, where Checketts had pitched the stake to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner before Hansen negotiated his share. [6] [8] Hansen's stake, originally 49 percent of the club, was increased to 62 percent in late 2012. Checketts sold his majority stake in the team to Hansen in 2013, giving him full control of the club, Rio Tinto Stadium, and sports radio station KALL. [1] [6]
Under Hansen's ownership through Utah Soccer LLC, Real Salt Lake launched a reserve team, Real Monarchs, that began play in 2015. The team was moved to a new venue, Zions Bank Stadium, on the grounds of a soccer academy in Herriman, Utah, that was partially funded by Hansen and opened in 2018. [9] [10] Hansen also negotiated a tax break with the Sandy city government for Rio Tinto Stadium, which was protested by city leaders in 2017. [11] RSL also launched a women's team, Utah Royals FC of the National Women's Soccer League, that began play in 2018. Hansen had approached Merritt Paulson of the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns about a franchise in the women's league four years earlier and bought the rights to defunct franchise FC Kansas City. [12]
Following a multi-sport player strike that caused the postponement of MLS matches on August 27, 2020, Hansen expressed his disappointment in an interview with radio station KXRK, also threatening to cease funding the club due to players not playing to show support for Black Lives Matter and to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. [13] The comments were criticized by prominent MLS and NBA players, which caused him to later retract his comments in an interview with ESPN700 and issue an apology. [14] [15] An article published later that day in The Athletic reported a history of alleged racist comments made by Hansen about or in the presence of Black employees at the Wasatch Group and in the RSL organization. [16] Further allegations were also published in The Salt Lake Tribune , including Hansen's mimicking of Black employee's accents, triggering investigations from MLS and NWSL. [17] On August 30, 2020, MLS and NWSL announced that Hansen would explore selling Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs, and the Utah Royals. [18] [19] In December 2020, Utah Soccer LLC announced that the Royals would move to Kansas City while a new franchise in Utah would be re-established in 2023. [20]
Hansen and his first wife Karla Axtell had eight children. His daughter Robin played college soccer for the Utah State Aggies in 2012. [21] He was later married in 1997 to Lynnette Hansen, a business executive and philanthropist. [22] Hansen is currently married to Julie Aiken Hansen. [23] Hansen is also an avid coin collector and acquired a rare 1894-S Barber dime for $1.3 million in 2019. [24] [25]
Kyle Robert Beckerman is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He spent 21 seasons in Major League Soccer (MLS) with the Miami Fusion (2000–2001), Colorado Rapids (2002–2007) and Real Salt Lake (2007–2020). He was a starting central defensive midfielder and captain when RSL won MLS Cup 2009. He also earned 58 caps with the United States national team.
Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. Founded in 2004, the club began play in 2005 as an expansion team of the league.
Craig Waibel is a former American soccer player who spent eleven seasons in Major League Soccer. He was hired as the sporting director of Seattle Sounders FC in April 2021 and became their general manager in 2022.
The Rocky Mountain Cup is a soccer trophy contested between Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids. The cup is awarded by the Committee of 10, a group of bi-partisan fans who run the competition, to the team with the most points in games played between the two. The teams are awarded 3 points for each win and 1 point for each tie in regular season MLS games against each other. The Cup is awarded at the conclusion of the deciding game of the series between the two teams.
David W. Checketts is an American businessman and sports executive. Checketts has served in c-suite roles or been an owner of the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty, Madison Square Garden (MSG), Legends Hospitality, and the St. Louis Blues. He also advised on Tom Gores' purchase of the Detroit Pistons and of Joe Tsai's purchase of the Brooklyn Nets.
America First Field is an American soccer-specific stadium in Sandy, Utah, that serves as home stadium for Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake and National Women's Soccer League club Utah Royals. The stadium opened on October 9, 2008, and seats 20,213 for soccer, but can be expanded to over 25,000 for concerts.
KALL is a sports radio station in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area licensed to North Salt Lake, Utah, though in station identifications and the FCC database, the station is listed as being licensed to "North Salt Lake City". The station is owned by Dell Loy Hansen's Broadway Media. The station's studios are located in Downtown Salt Lake City and its transmitter site is located in Legacy Nature Preserve west of Bountiful. Their sister station KOVO is also an ESPN Radio affiliate.
Garth Lagerwey is a retired American soccer player who played five seasons in Major League Soccer as a goalkeeper. He became the general manager of Real Salt Lake in 2007 and stayed with the club before departing in 2015 for Seattle Sounders FC, where he served as general manager and president of soccer for seven years. Lagerwey joined Atlanta United FC as its president and CEO in November 2022.
Real Salt Lake Women was an American women's soccer team that was founded in 2008. The team was a founding member of United Women's Soccer league, in the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team played in the Women's Premier Soccer League from 2008-2015.
This article presents a detailed, year-by-year history of Real Salt Lake (2004–present). For other information about the professional soccer club based in Utah, please see the main article.
The expansion of the National Women's Soccer League began with the league's sophomore season in 2014, when the league expanded to a ninth team in Houston, and is an ongoing process that currently has seen five expansions, three direct or indirect relocations, and one contraction. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was established as the top level of professional women's soccer in the United States in 2013 in the wake of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer.
Real Monarchs is a professional soccer club playing in the MLS Next Pro, a third division league of American soccer. The team is an affiliate of the Major League Soccer (MLS) club Real Salt Lake. Real Monarchs are based in the Real Salt Lake training facility in Herriman, Utah, playing out of Zions Bank Stadium. As with Real Salt Lake, the club is owned by David Blitzer and Ryan Smith.
The Utah Royals are an American women's professional soccer club based in Salt Lake City. Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion club, the Royals played its first stint in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2018 until ceasing operations in 2020, with their player-related assets transferred to the expansion Kansas City Current. In 2023, Real Salt Lake owners Ryan Smith and David Blitzer reestablished the team.
Zions Bank Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Herriman, Utah, United States, with a seating capacity of 5,000. The stadium is home to Real Monarchs, a MLS Next Pro team affiliated with Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer; the Utah Warriors, a Major League Rugby team; and the Salt Lake Shred, an Ultimate Frisbee Association team. The stadium is part of the $78 million Zions Bank Real Academy, which includes the academy and training facilities for Real Salt Lake, and is near the Mountain View Corridor. In May 2017, Real Salt Lake and Zions Bank announced a sponsorship deal that would give the bank naming rights to the stadium. It opened on April 20, 2018.
The 2019 Utah Royals FC season marks the team's second year of existence and its second season in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top division of the American soccer pyramid.
The 2020 Real Salt Lake season was the team's 16th year of existence, and their 16th consecutive season in Major League Soccer, the top division of the American soccer pyramid.
The 2020 National Women's Soccer League season was the eighth season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer (2009–2011) and the Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003), it was the 14th overall season of FIFA and USSF-sanctioned top division women's soccer in the United States.
S. Ryan Smith is an American billionaire businessman and chaiman of Smith Entertainment Group. He is the executive chairman and co-founder of Qualtrics, an experience management company based in Provo, Utah. Smith is also owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Utah Hockey Club of the National Hockey League (NHL) in Salt Lake City, and co-owner of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer (MLS) with sports investor David Blitzer.
The 2021 Real Salt Lake season was the team's 17th year of existence, and their 17th consecutive season in Major League Soccer, the top division of the American soccer pyramid. RSL entered the 2021 season looking to rebound from a tumultuous 2020 season, having finished near the bottom of the table and endured the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic continued to have a significant impact on MLS in 2021, causing the season's start to be delayed to mid-April instead of the traditional first weekend in March, a reworked schedule that focused heavily on intra-conference play to reduce travel, and stadiums at reduced capacity. The state of Utah allowed RSL to open the season with Rio Tinto Stadium at 50% capacity. The 2021 Major League Soccer season began on April 16, 2021, though RSL did not begin their season until the following week, April 24, having had a bye in the opening weekend due to the odd number of teams in MLS in 2021.
Abel Mendoza is an American soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Utah Valley Wolverines.