{"id":2123278,"date":"2025-10-29T19:36:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2123278"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:36:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:36:42","slug":"real-salt-lake-utah-royals-announce-leadership-restructuring-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/real-salt-lake-utah-royals-announce-leadership-restructuring-deseret-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Salt Lake, Utah Royals announce leadership restructuring \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jason Kreis<\/a> has been named the first-ever president of soccer operations of both Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals.<\/p>\n

Kreis\u2019 appointment was announced Wednesday in a press conference with RSL and Utah Royals FC governor Steve Miller, Larry H. Miller Company CEO Steve Starks and RSL president John Kimball at America First Field.<\/p>\n

The Larry H. Miller Company bought<\/a> Real Salt Lake, Utah Royals FC and the Real Monarchs in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 21 years ago in October in 2004 when we introduced Jason Kreis, our first-ever player. We did this before we had a name, before we had a logo, even before we had our colors,\u201d Kimball said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In his new role, Kreis will report to ownership and oversee the sporting structures of both RSL and the Royals, though both will continue their independent operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our first six months of ownership, we have reviewed our internal structure, evaluated the executive talent, engaged with both league offices and studied best practices from around the world,\u201d Starks said.<\/p>\n

The Larry H. Miller Company is one of a few organizations to own both MLS and NWSL teams, Starks noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile these are distinct teams and staffs, it became apparent to us that we could leverage greater resources, innovation, culture and competitiveness by having them report to a single sporting executive who could have visibility over both clubs, provide mentorship and set a tone in championship culture,\u201d Starks said.<\/p>\n

Kreis \u201chas our trust and the trust of the entire organization,\u201d according to Starks. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be world class. We want to be elite, as Jason likes to say,\u201d Starks said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Salt Lake is where I should be\u2019<\/h3>\n

Kreis opened his remarks by thanking his wife, Kimberly, saying, \u201cWithout her, there is zero chance I would be standing here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2007, Kreis retired to become RSL\u2019s next head coach. He led the club to its first and only MLS Cup title.<\/p>\n

Kreis left following the 2013 season for New York City FC and later stints with Orlando City, the United States U-23 national team, the USL and an assistant coaching role with Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

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Jason Kreis speaks at America First Field in Sandy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Kreis was named first-ever president of soccer operations over Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at America First Field in Sandy. <\/span>| Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI left here in 2014 at the top of the coaching echelon. I then went away for 10 years, and truthfully, I did not have a ton of success. But through all of that, I experienced and learned a lot,\u201d Kreis said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

While away, Kreis realized he didn\u2019t feel fulfilled with what he was doing and he wasn\u2019t happy where he was. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt dawned on me then that Salt Lake is where I should be. Salt Lake is where I had a tremendous amount of success, and Salt Lake is where I felt appreciated. Salt Lake is where we raised our children. Salt Lake is our home. We belong here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He returned to Real Salt Lake in December 2023<\/a> as the new director of operations and special projects.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Kreis made two promises to ownership and the fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, I will approach every day with a positive, competitive and collaborative attitude,\u201d he said. \u201cNumber two, I will put absolutely everything I have into this project. Nobody will work harder or be more committed to this than me. The best is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then quoting the Latin phrase \u201cAudentes fortuna juvat,\u201d meaning \u201cfortune favors the bold,\u201d Kreis said, \u201cI do plan to be bold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Kreis\u2019 vision for RSL and Royals<\/h3>\n

In light of LA FC\u2019s signing of Son Heung-min to an $11.2 million contract, Kreis and Starks were asked if Real Salt Lake was able to compete with such major player signings.<\/p>\n

Starks said investment comes in different forms: financial investments in players but also investment in infrastructure, culture, facilities and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say emphatically, yes, we can compete at the highest level. That doesn\u2019t always mean you\u2019re going to spend the most. I think you see that across the sports world. Culture really matters. Development really matters, and they do have to make investment as well,\u201d Starks said. \u201cThe Miller family, our ownership group, wouldn\u2019t be at this if we didn\u2019t believe that we couldn\u2019t compete at the highest levels and compete for championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kreis acknowledged that they will be outspent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt about it. We will be outspent in player acquisition and player cost by bigger clubs and bigger markets that have bigger stadiums, that have bigger marketing, that have so much more revenue,\u201d Kreis said.<\/p>\n

To compensate for that disparity so both RSL and the Utah Royals can \u201cconsistently compete for championships,\u201d Kreis said the organizations need to be elite in development, recruitment and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very, very focused on making our health and performance and our recruitment departments elite. We are looking at how we have operated over the past couple of years, and I think we\u2019ve been honest with ourselves to say we haven\u2019t done a good enough job in the recruitment department. We haven\u2019t done a good enough job with our professionalism and establishing an elite culture,\u201d Kreis said.<\/p>\n

RSL wrapped up its season last week after a wild card loss in the playoffs to the Portland Timbers. The Royals\u2019 season concludes Sunday with a home match against the Washington Spirit.<\/p>\n

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Jason Kreis is photographed at America First Field in Sandy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.Jason Kreis speaks at America First Field in Sandy on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. Kreis was named first-ever president of soccer operations over Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at America First Field in Sandy. <\/span>| Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.deseret.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Kreis has been named the first-ever president of soccer operations of both Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals. Kreis\u2019 appointment was announced Wednesday in a press conference with RSL and Utah Royals FC governor Steve Miller, Larry H. Miller Company CEO Steve Starks and RSL president John Kimball at America First Field. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[323007,403205],"class_list":["post-2123278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-royalty","tag-news-feed-national","tag-rsl"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123279,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123278\/revisions\/2123279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}