Meg Van Dyk (Real Salt Lake)
Eight hundred twenty-four days passed between the National Women’s Soccer League’s announcement that Utah Royals FC would fold, and Saturday’s official announcement that the franchise has been revived as a 2024 expansion team.
The Royals will rejoin the NWSL next season alongside another expansion team (expected to be the California’s Bay Area) to bring the league to 14 teams. Utah’s name remains the same, although the Royals’ branding has been refreshed and, most importantly, ownership is completely different from the previous regime that left amid controversy. Sources say the expansion fee paid was roughly $2 million, as first reported on ESPN in June, marking a significant bargain to the $50 million fees expected to be fetched by the next two teams joining the league.
Saturday’s Royals announcement was confirmation of what has been an open secret for the past year. It was also a culmination of efforts that literally began with the Dec. 7, 2020, announcement of the Royals’…
