New stadium very TV-friendly

Real Salt Lake hasn't been on national TV much in its first four seasons. Home games have been particularly hard to find on ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel.

And there's a three-word explanation — Rice-Eccles Stadium.

RSL didn't televise many home games either, for the same reason. It's a football stadium. And a bad place to play, watch and televise soccer.

No such problem with the amazing new Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. Not only is it a great place to attend a game, but it's a great place from which to televise games. And that's no accident.

"Dave (Checketts) is a broadcasting guy. He's the head of the league's broadcasting committee," said Trey Fitz-Gerald, RSL's director of soccer media services. "This is the first (soccer) stadium built with television in mind."

Amid all the great amenities and fantastic sight-lines are miles and miles of cables and the sort of electronics you'd expect to find on the Starship Enterprise. What it boils down to is a set-up that not only makes it easy to televise games but will create the kind of broadcast that will make for a much better viewing experience at home.

It's an intimate 20,008-seat setting for fans and viewers — the main sideline camera is only 41 feet from the field.

"It makes us immediately more relevant within the league, within the soccer landscape and within the television landscape," Fitz-Gerald said.

There are camera positions in the southwest corner, the northwest corner and high in the end zone. There are "offsides" cameras along the sidelines and high above the 18s. There are positions for the local TV stations to place cameras to capture footage for their newscasts.

In addition to all the camera positions on the west side of the stadium, there are additional positions on the east side that could be used if, for example, a team from Europe or South America visits and wants to produce its own telecast.

When ESPN2 telecasts tonight's stadium opener (8 p.m.), it will use 10 or 11 cameras. When ESPN returns for next year's MLS All-Star Game, it will use about 16 cameras — including a robotic camera that hovers over the field on wires.

When all of the fiber optics are installed (before next season), local stations won't even have to bring satellite trucks to Rio Tinto Stadium — they'll be able to plug their cameras into the system and send footage back to the studio.

And not only will ESPN and FSC be far more likely to telecast games from Utah, but so will RSL. It's talking to current partner KSL, Comcast and at least one other local station with an eye toward using the stadium itself to help promote the team.

"We may televise every home game next season," said Fitz-Gerald.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com

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