All that was missing on RSL's red-letter day: a win

SANDY — And now for the really hard part.

What, you think all it takes is putting on a pretty face?

Real Salt Lake opened the gates to its shimmering new stadium Thursday, and — wouldn't you know it? — after four years of haggling, begging, borrowing, pleading and praying, this was the result: RSL 1, New York 1.

Things are still fair to partly cloudy.

It's true, a draw can be OK in soccer. But with just two matches remaining, and a playoff spot in the balance, wouldn't this have been a good place to make a statement?

RSL may have fended off the county mayor and irate taxpayer advocates, but it's not out of the woods. Not even a late red card on the Red Bulls could get RSL a win.

That said, Thursday was a red (and blue and gold) letter day for RSL on several counts. First, the new house was up and running. How nice was it? As nice as green grass and 20,000 molded chair seats can look. Gazing across the pitch at Rio Tinto Stadium is like browsing an art gallery — all graceful lines and pleasant colors.

The weather could have been warmer, but that's like complaining about free chocolate.

"It was a fantastic experience," said a disappointed RSL coach Jason Kreis. "I think it may have been too good an atmosphere for what (ragged play) we saw out there."

The game was on ESPN2, the sort of exposure that puts teams on the map. Too bad someone didn't bother to look at a map of Sandy, or they would have realized there's little parking and less access.

But like summiting a mountain, the reward is when you get there.

The big story, though, isn't the parking or even the stadium. It's that for the first time in its existence, the club still has a chance at the playoffs. A win would have moved them a giant step toward that goal. As everyone knows, there's no better way to boost public support than to be alive when others have gone home. That's when the moderate fans get slightly immoderate and start wearing team colors, acting as though they were there all along.

Down the road, there's also the issue of how many will come to the state-of-the-art stadium. RSL got off to a good start. The place was a sellout. But Franklin Covey Field enjoyed record baseball attendance for a year or two after it opened, but later dropped off.

RSL's attendance next year will be considerably higher than this year's as fans and non-fans alike check out the new field.

After that it's up to the team; the stadium-gawkers will be history.