The Standard Examiner is reported and both athletic directors for Southern Utah and Weber State have agreed to test moving their annual rivalry game to the a neutral site, Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy Utah which is the home of Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. The date of the annual game will also be moved to the first Friday in October.
The move makes sense for Southern Utah as a significant percentage of their student body and alumni come from the Salt Lake City area and they receive sizeable support from these fans whenever they play games along the Wasatch Front, either in Ogden, Salt Lake City or Logan. (In football SUU has never played Brigham Young.) It will also help reduce traveling expenses for the team from Ogden.
Rio Tinto Stadium seats around 20,000 people and is a state of the art facility for Major League Soccer. The stadium configuration has provided a sizeable home-field advantage for Utah's MLS franchise, who have lost only 5 home games since the facility was built. It has hosted the Major League Soccer all-star game and several international soccer and rugby events. It has also been the site of an annual soccer game between Utah State and Brigham Young. The stadium is also becoming a favorite concert venue and in 2010 was the site of Paul McCartney's
In gridiron football, it has hosted many high school matches and the annual junior college Top Of The Mountains Bowl. The game between the soon-to-be Big Sky rivals would become the first gridiron football event for a 4-year college at this facility.
With the cooperation of the Big Sky Conference the game would be moved to the first Friday in October. The reason is to take advantage of LDS General Conference. For those not familiar with the event or with LDS Culture, General Conference is where regular LDS Sunday meetings are not held and many Latter-Day Saint faithful travel to Salt Lake City to conduct the business of the church as a whole and to hear counsel from senior church leaders. As the LDS Church relies on lay ministry and volunteers, it is a weekend when many SUU students who are LDS and from Salt Lake return home to spend with their families. Utah State and Brigham Young have played their annual rivalry on the first Friday in October for years and it is been well attended. Many area high schools play their games on Thursday during this week.
It is about 45 miles from the Weber State campus in Ogden to Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy.
Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah and Rio Tinto Stadium are about 239 miles apart.
Rio Tinto Stadium is located in Sandy, Utah at 9256 South State Street. It is near other popular landmarks in southern Salt Lake County: The Jordan Commons Center, the Southtown Exposition Center and Southtown Mall. The Stadium opened in the fall of 2008. It's main tenant is Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer, the top FIFA sanctioned top professional soccer league in the United State and Canada.
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