Real Salt Lake: Sizing up Rio Tinto Stadium vs. rest of the league

Opening day for Real Salt Lake in the new Rio Tinto Stadium is just over a week away. By all accounts, it figures to be the elite stadium in Major League Soccer — at least until the New York Red Bulls open their stadium in Harrison, N.J. in 2010.

Three months ago, when MLS president Mark Abbott was in town to announce the MLS All-Star Game, he declared the yet-to-be-named stadium the best in MLS.

Rio Tinto Stadium, with a construction cost of $115 million, is the seventh soccer-specific stadium in MLS. Other teams who have their own home are: Colorado, FC Dallas, Columbus, Chicago and Toronto, with the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA sharing the Home Depot Center.

New York is scheduled to move into its new stadium in 2010, while expansion club Philadelphia will begin in 2010 in a new stadium as well.

RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman has been with the team throughout the construction process, and he's thrilled to open the stadium on Oct. 9 in a nationally televised game against the New York Red Bulls.

"It's the best in the league, and they seemed to maybe learn from the other stadiums," said Beckerman. "It's perfect. It's everything you could want in a soccer stadium. It's all the way around and there's no bleacher seats."

In advance of next Thursday's first-ever match at 20,000-seat Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, here's a look at the other six stadiums in Major League Soccer:

Crew Stadium

Columbus, Ohio
Home of the Columbus Crew
Opened May 15, 1999
Cost — $28.5 million
Capacity — 20,145

Media Guide Note — The first stadium built in MLS, it took just nine months and one day to complete. Built on land leased from the Ohio Expositions Commission.

RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman's take — "It's the first soccer stadium, you give them that. They kind of built it like a high school football stadium, a nice one. That's what I take from it. It's an American football stadium more than a soccer stadium."

Home Depot Center

Carson, Calif.
Home of the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA
Opened June 1, 2003
Cost — $150 million
Capacity — 27,000