Four months ago, David Blitzer first touched the base of the Miller family, pioneers of the UTAH sports property, to see if they would be interested in discussing “the art of the possible”. This “possible” being if the thousands, who owned Utah’s jazz and managers for 35 years before selling the franchise in October 2020, were fascinated by the prospect of turning into professional sports in UTAH.
Blitzer, who participates in ownership groups from the NBA, NFL, NHL as well as many professional football clubs across Europe, was looking for a local majority owner for two other clubs: Real Salt Lake of MLS and the UTA Royals FC de la NWSL.
“One of the things we have done frankly, and perhaps more recently, is that the owner of the control of a franchise should really be local and extremely anchored in their community,” said Blitzer Athletics.
Less than five years after the thousands sold jazz for $ 1.66 billion, they are back on the ground – this time in football. Friday, the Miller and Miller Sports & Entertainment family finalized their majority by holding the acquisition of RSL and the Royals of Blitzer, which remains as the owner of the minority.
The conditions of the sale were not made public, but sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed Athletics That the sale totaled around 600 million dollars for: the two clubs, the Real Monarchs of MLS Next Pro and the domestic stadium (America First Field in Sandy) and the assets of the facilities (Zions Bank Training Center in Herriman).
Steve Miller, president of the company Larry H. Miller, said that it was never a guarantee that the family was going to return to the world of operational professional sports on a daily basis.
“We have a set of fairly strict criteria that we apply to any opportunity that presents itself. Athletics. “It was more a question of opportunity, and it had to be the right opportunity. We never excluded anything, and it was not inevitable that we would be back in other sports.”
As Athletics According to last month, Ryan Smith, who bought Jazz at Millers in 2020, will no longer have participations in RSL and the Royals. Smith has teamed up with Blitzer when he bought RSL from former owner Dell Loy Hansen in January 2022 for $ 400 million. Smith Entertainment Group had the right to first refusal on the majority property of RSL and the Royals, according to a source with knowledge of the sale, but refused this option to focus on jazz and the UTAH UTAH hockey club, which launched this season, and because the Miller group had emerged like another UTAH -based property group.
Real Salt Lake should have a new property (Christopher Creveling / Imagn Images)
“We are happy that football stays in Utah, and Gail Miller is an ideal local intendant to direct professional football franchises in Utah in the future,” said Smith in a statement provided to Athletics. “We will always be solid club supporters. Smith Entertainment Group was delighted to be part of the growth trip of the real lake salt and to bring back professional female sports to UTAH with the Royals of Utah alongside incredible partners like David Blitzer, our incredible players and our faithful fans. We are proud of the greatest importance, which faced the professional mission of SEG to present UTAH as one of the most exciting for professional and the most exciting contractions.
“With so much growth on the Horizon for Smith Entertainment group – improving the success of our main sports franchises with Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club and supporting the reimagination of the downtown hockey center – is the right time to tighten our basic state on the NBA, NHL and other areas where we can make the biggest impact on our state, the other areas where we sports. “”
Blitzer helped guide professional football in restless waters.
The 2022 sales process was conducted in conjunction with MLS. Hansen put the team for sale after revelations of racist behavior were reported by Athletics In 2020. Blitzer bought the team with Smith and Arctos Partners, a capital investment platform.
Blitzer and Smith also maintained NWSL expansion rights for the Royals to potentially return to the League, which was estimated at $ 2 million. The Royals were sold and moved to Kansas City, where the organization would become the current of Kansas City due to the surveys of Hansen’s behavior. A year after their combined mandate as owners, Blitzer and Smith, as well as NWSL, announced that the Royals would return to the League as an expansion team from 2024.
NWSL assessments soar.
The new NWSL Denver franchise paid expansion fees of $ 110 million earlier this year and will start playing in 2026. Last year, the San Diego wave sold $ 120 million, while Angel City FC sold a majority participation in Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, Dollars. In April 2023, former COO Meta Sheryl Sandberg supported an investment of $ 125 million in Bay FC (including $ 53 million franchise costs).
“Strong conviction that assessments would increase over time,” the NWSL commissioner told Jessica Berman Athletics. “It’s only a few years when our assessments have really soared. I suppose that I was a little surprised at the speed with which it happened, but it is quite surprising what is possible when you bring together a committed group of owners who are well resourced and have a shared vision to build the best League in the world. With that, it was clear in the markets where we really play.
The NWSL Utah Royals are in their second season after having relaunched as a franchise in 2024. (Christopher Creveling / Imagn Images)
The MLS commissioner, Don Garber, called Salt Lake City and Utah “one of the best football markets” in the League and said that having a local anchor like the Miller family as a majority owner of RSL to work with Blitzer will only pursue his belief. MLS evaluations are also skyrocketing, at a time when the next male world cup is expected to be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The last MLS extension franchise, San Diego FC, paid extension costs of $ 500 million to reach the League.
“This explains how optimistic we were on sport,” said Garber Athletics. “I always think that our best days are still in advance.”
The Miller family thinks the same for RSL and the Royals. Steve Starks, CEO of the Larry H. Miller Company, said that one of the main subjects of a dinner with Blitzer in Salt Lake City Thursday evening was to transform each club into a quality competitor in each respective league.
“We are really excited by the tail winds behind Major League Soccer and the NWSL and where (football is) which goes around the world and specifically here in America,” said Starks. “And we wouldn’t do that if we did not compete at the highest level.”
The ASLI Pelit of athletics contributed to this report.
(Top Photo: Rob Gray / Imagn Images)
