Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

On Sunday, Sept. 14, Real Salt Lake issued a public apology to a person in attendance for their 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 13. This person wore a MAGA hat, which violates the Code of Conduct for fans. As a result, the person was asked to take off the hat or leave the stadium. The person decided to leave.

On Saturday night, after posting the video on Twitter/X of himself leaving the stadium, he started getting the attention he was looking for. As likes, reposts, and views started racking up, I felt like I had to say something. Admittedly, I didn’t exactly think that telling him to “stop being a baby” would actually fix anything, but sometimes I feel like that’s exactly what needs to be done: telling someone to stop crying over something stupid. It was obvious to me from the video he posted, this was clearly someone looking to provoke a reaction more than anything else. This was not someone who cared about the team, the club, or the community built around it.

The intentions of this person were made even more clear as I interacted with him online, and as the greater RSL fanbase had their own interactions with him. He, along with another far-right online Utah character, made direct violent threats against me. Publicly! The MAGA hat guy explicitly said “WAGTFKY” (We Are Going To Fucking Kill You – a right wing “meme”) to me in one of the exchanges, in addition to calling me a “f***ot leftist”. This character made his true feelings known in additional posts, calling people the N word, calling for all of RSL’s foreign players to be kicked out of the country, and offering up a “$50-a-head” bounty for the murder of transgender people.

I don’t need to patronize anyone and explain that we live in a pretty wild political climate right now. This RSL game came just a few days after right-wing activist, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed just 30 miles south at Utah Valley University. In the immediate following, it became extremely clear to me that the right wing of this country was out for blood. There were many high profile politicians and commentators on the right immediately calling for something like a declaration of war against their ideological opponents. A massive doxxing campaign kicked off to get people fired who didn’t publicly respond to Kirk’s death in the way prominent figures on the right deemed appropriate. In fact, the MAGA hat guy himself submitted me to this database in a way to get back at me for calling him a baby and claimed I celebrated Kirk’s death — something I didn’t and wouldn’t do.

On Sunday afternoon, Real Salt Lake apologized to the individual in question, stating he’d been asked to remove a MAGA hat. In their statement, the club said, “During last night’s Real Salt Lake match, a fan was asked to remove a Make America Great Again hat. We have apologized to the fan and gladly invite him and his family to attend Real Salt Lake matches in the future. Real Salt Lake has a vibrant and diverse fanbase and we invite them to continue to unite our community through the power of sport and the beautiful game.”

RSL’s apology to this person was disappointing, to say the least. Not only did they apologize to him for enforcing the stated policy, the apology came after his awful views were made public. They knew who he was when they apologized. To me, it’s clear that RSL saw this story catching the attention of people like Utah Sen. Mike Lee, former Utah state representative Phil Lyman, and others, and the club decided that they didn’t want the online hordes of people looking for revenge coming their way as well. The problem, though, is that the person they apologized to wasn’t looking for an apology. He already got what he wanted. In fact, when Real Salt Lake announced Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month the very next day, this individual’s response was, simply, “deport them all.”

At some point, John Kimball, the Club President, and Michelle Smith, the Chief People Officer at the Larry H. Miller Company, apparently gave this guy a personal phone call. I’m not sure what was discussed, but the person in question posted about it after and said:

Real Salt Lake harbors an environment where leftist hate is allowed to build and grow. They fear the backlash they’ll receive from the left if they go against the grain. They are worried leftist fans would riot.

I do not believe that this guy is a reliable narrator and his definition of “leftist hate” almost certainly includes seeing a single pride flag, but I will say that I have some pretty big concerns with this kind of public and private concession. My understanding is that this is the first moment of its kind to happen under this new ownership of the Larry H. Miller group, and I am extremely concerned by their response and their buckling at this moment. I fear this is indicative of their willingness to turn their back on something that makes this club special and makes the community that’s been built around it something that’s genuinely worth defending. It goes without saying, but this individual’s racist, homophobic, transphobic and violent rhetoric words are direct attacks on members of this diverse RSL community. This is a community made up of immigrants and lifelong Utahns, people of different faiths and none, of every race, orientation, and gender identity. It’s a mix that has always been part of what makes RSL special.

It’s no secret that in the United States, the fans that gravitate toward soccer tend to be more “progressive,” at least on social issues. You don’t have to look hard to find imagery of pro-LGBTQIA and pro-refugees scarves and flags at games. It’s something that the league and this club has leaned into. The club proudly celebrates Pride Month every year. In fact, tonight’s game against LAFC is our Pride Night game that was pushed back from June after the game was rescheduled. It should be noted, however, that the club has seemingly distanced itself from promoting anything related to Pride from this game — at least on social media. I could be wrong (please prove me wrong), but something tells me that today, we won’t see a similar post like this from last year’s Pride Match. To be extremely clear: Civil rights, including the rights of gay and trans people, are not examples of the partisan politics that a MAGA hat represents. I’ve been pleased in the past to see RSL show that they’ve believed that too. I don’t expect everyone in that stadium to believe the same things as me. I know that many do not, even friends who come to games with me. But I do believe that everyone should share a base level of humanity and decency. And that’s something that the provocateur obviously does not share.

This has been a unique year for me and my relationship to Real Salt Lake. It’s no secret that this season hasn’t exactly been ideal for the club. Going into tonight’s match in mid-September against LAFC, RSL finds themselves 10th in the west, still looking in from the outside at the playoff spots. This season, Matt, Trevor, and I have done fewer Off the Crossbar podcast episodes about this team than we have in years past. A big part of that has come from major life changes for all three of us, but in addition, it hasn’t been particularly enjoyable to write, analyze, or speak about this team at length. We don’t want to be overly negative and it gets boring levying the same criticism week after week, especially when we were in the mud.

But that’s certainly not because we do not care. I won’t speak for Matt and Trevor, though I know they feel the exact same way as I do – the club is what brought us together and they are both incredibly dear lifelong friends of mine! I love this club. And as someone who has played soccer since I could walk, I’ve been a supporter of RSL since it was announced we were getting a team. I’ve brought so many family members and friends to games to help them experience the joy and community I’ve experienced by being a supporter of Real Salt Lake. I’ve dedicated countless hours watching, talking about, photographing, and living RSL. All of that time was time well-spent.

But this year, I’ve done far less media in the stadium than I have in years past. Instead, I’ve leaned in to being heavily involved with The Riot and supporter culture at the club. I tailgate, I help organize, and I march into the stadium and scream, yell, chant, and dance all game long. It’s been a beautiful thing to do my part to personally strengthen the community and build even more friendships with new people. And when things haven’t gone our way on the field this season, I have felt just fine knowing that I got to spend time with people who matter to me and continue showing up for something we all care deeply about.

If you know me, what I believe in is no secret to you. I’m very outspoken, have phases of being argumentative online, but I consistently and fiercely fight for human and civil rights. Even before I believed myself to be “on the left”, I believed in things like ending violent wars, protecting immigrants, and marriage equality. And one thing that I’ve always loved about this club, this team, and this community, is that I felt like the people around felt the same way. When we had high profile incidents of racism and sexism at the club, things were dealt with. Famously, even. I’m not going to pretend like everything has been perfect in the organization — I know for a fact it hasn’t been — but I’ve always known that people in the organization who truly did care about the things I also care about had a voice. It’s becoming clear this is no longer the case.

I believe that this moment demands bravery and to stand up for what is right. I’m not asking the club to endorse a specific political party or politician. I’m not asking them to do anything beyond what they’ve already proven capable of doing: Stand up for yourselves and stand up for the community that makes this club what it is.