- Utah will lose professional rugby and minor league hockey but gain men's professional volleyball and professional softball in 2026.
- The Larry H. Miller Company has high expectations for Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC this season.
- 2,000 temporary additional seats will be added to America First Field for the 2026 season.
The professional sports landscape in Utah will look slightly different this year.
Utah will still have the Utah Jazz, Mammoth, Real Salt Lake, Royals, Archers, LOVB Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Bees, but it will lose two established teams.
In 2026, Utah will be without professional rugby after the Utah Warriors folded in November, and the state will also say goodbye to the Utah Grizzlies following their final game on April 11 before relocating to New Jersey.
Since the start of the new year, Utah has also welcomed two new teams to the state with the Salt Lake Apex, a men’s professional volleyball team, and the Utah Talons of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
The Apex began their inaugural season in January, while the Talons will begin play in June.
As Utah’s sports landscape shifts, what can Utahns expect from their teams in 2026?
Leaders within the Larry H. Miller Company’s Miller Sports + Entertainment spoke with the Deseret News about what 2026 will look like for the Salt Lake Bees, Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC, even sharing a few teases for the year.
Sports at the center of memory-making
Larry H. Miller Company CEO Steve Starks described 2025 as a “banner year” for the company.
In 2025, the company purchased Real Salt Lake, Utah Royals FC and the Real Monarchs and also opened The Ballpark at America First Square, the new stadium for the Bees, in Daybreak.
“We were very fortunate to acquire Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals, and we’re so excited about the future of soccer in America, in Utah, and those clubs,” Starks said.
Last year, over 6.2 million guests passed through the company’s venues — Megaplexes, America First Field and The Ballpark at America First Square — according to Michelle Smith, the company’s chief people officer and the president of Miller Sports + Entertainment.
“It’s 6.2 million people, but it’s one memory at a time,” Starks said. “And we want to continue to bring people together and create those experiences that they’ll remember for a lifetime.”
Starks considers the company and its leaders “stewards” of sports and entertainment experiences.
In fact, when John Kimball, the president of business operations at Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC, meets someone, he challenges them to think of their top 10 memories.
“If they think of their top 10 memories, I always argue that two to three of them have something to do with sports. It’s either that you went with your mom or your dad to something, or you took your child to something, or you saw something extraordinary happen just in the realm of sports,” he said.
The Miller company hopes to facilitate more of those memories, whether it’s by catching a foul ball at a Bees game or watching Messi play against RSL live in Utah.
“Those memories are really the goals that we focus on as a sports organization, as a sports team, to try to create so that people want to come back,” Kimball said.
Another new chapter for the Salt Lake Bees
Now that the Bees have settled into their new hive, general manager Ty Wardle said the team is “looking for opportunities to really engage the fan and increase the fan experience out of the new ballpark again.”
The 2026 season begins in March.
The team will release its promotional calendar for the season on Feb. 3. The Bees will also debut new partnerships and a new alternate identity, which will be announced in late February.
“Typically, the teams create an alt identity that is significant to their local community or state. There’s a unique tie, a creative, really fun tie, and, as is the unique side of minor league baseball, you get to have some fun with it,” Smith said.
Palm Beach Frozen Iguanas, Pawtucket Hot Wieners, New Hampshire Space Potatoes, Eugene Exploding Whales, Hartford Bouncing Pickles and the Hickory Dickory Docks are just a few examples of the alternate identities teams have come up with over the years.
Smith believes the Bees’ alternate identity will make fans “smile ear to ear.”
The 2026 season will also mark another new chapter for the Bees with the departure of longtime manager Keith Johnson, who became the Los Angeles Angels’ third base coach in November.
The Bees have yet to publicly announce the team’s new manager, but “he’ll be introduced here shortly as well,” Wardle said.
Development will also continue around the ballpark with the addition of new dining options. In 2026, Red Iguana, Nomad Eatery and Rockwell Ice Cream will open new locations near the ballpark.
Playoffs the goal for Utah Royals FC
Jason Kreis, president of soccer operations of Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC, has high hopes and expectations for the Royals in 2026.
The Utah Royals have won just 13 of 52 regular-season games and lost 28 since returning to the NWSL in 2024. The team has never made the playoffs, including in its first iteration from 2018 to 2020.
“They have a very clear objective for this year, that is to make the playoffs. I think the team has shown over the second half of 2025 that they are capable of that. But even having said that, I think it will be an improved team,” Kreis said.
This offseason, the Royals have signed midfielder Madison Hammond, defender Miyabi Moriya and Utah native and former Ute Courtney Brown.
Kreis said the team “will probably add about three more players, all of starting caliber.” The team has since traded for Brown’s former Washington Spirit teammate, midfielder Narumi Miura.
“So we would expect that the level of the team will be high. We will expect that the level of the coaching will maintain what it did in the second half of the season under their new direction,” he said.
Off the pitch in 2026, the Miller company is “fully invested to continuing to grow the fandom of the Royals,” Smith said.
Part of that will come through the team’s new jersey. Last year’s jersey was a tribute to the Great Salt Lake.
“What I love about it is it’s not only a cool jersey that you’re going to want to wear, it’s going to come with some intention of creating connection with the fans and building a fandom,” Smith said.
Smith did share a tease for the new design.
“We want to create the swarm, right?” she said. “You’ll get it when you see it. But these working bees that are all swarmed together to support and grow and build.”
New heights for Real Salt Lake, Diego Luna
With Real Salt Lake having made the playoffs in 18 of the last 21 years, Kreis has higher expectations for the club.
“The success level has been good to get us to a place where we’re competing for a championship by making the playoffs. But we will push forward and make a clear objective that the team does better than just make the playoffs this year. We really think we ought to be making the next rounds,” he said.
A major key to accomplishing that objective is Diego Luna, who emerged as a rising star on the international stage with the U.S. men’s national team last year.
“It didn’t happen overnight, but this development happened very, very fast,” Kreis said.
In three years, Luna went from playing in the USL Championship, the United States’ second tier of professional men’s soccer, in El Paso, Texas, to making a name for himself in the MLS with RSL and on the national team.
Despite his impressive leaps, there’s still new heights for Luna to reach, with Kreis noting that the 22-year-old “is not a finished product.”
“He is still somebody that we think needs development, needs good players around him so that he can truly shine,” Kreis said. “But yes, we are absolutely ecstatic that he is an RSL player and will continue to be an RSL player through this season and through what should be an amazing World Cup for him.”
Outside of providing an additional stage for Luna to shine on, the World Cup will be a tipping point for the state of soccer in the U.S. and Utah, Kimball said.
“I really believe that our future players, the little 8-year-old kids that are watching soccer and watching World Cup now, will become our professional athletes in the next five to 10 years that will allow us to compete on that global stage because of this tipping point that’s happening now.”
Enhancing the fan experience and welcoming the GOAT
In 2026, Real Salt Lake will welcome Lionel Messi and Inter Miami to Utah for the first time. The team has already experienced an unprecedented demand for tickets to the match, as the Deseret News previously reported.
While the team can’t guarantee Messi will play, it feels “bullish” about the chances, according to Kimball.
“We know that Messi wants to play as much as he can before the World Cup, and then we’d also heard from the league that he’s really trying to earmark and focus on games that allow him to play at altitude and allow him to get into the best shape that he can,” Kimball said.
To accommodate the ticket demand for the Inter Miami match, 2,000 seats will be added to the north concourse of America First Field.
The two-level seating will be left up for the entirety of the season and will be similar to the scaffolding seating used at Black Desert’s PGA events, according to Kimball.
“I actually think it’s going to be awesome because it’ll be out of the sun. Potentially, we’ll have some heating in it. It’ll be protected from rain, and so I think with some of our early season games, it’ll be a nice addition to what we’re doing to the building,” he said.
In addition to the extra seating, America First Field will undergo some renovations, beginning with enhancements of the stadium’s west side premium areas and moving the employee offices out of the stadium.
“There’ll be other phases that are going to be happening over the next couple of years with some really exciting things happening with the Miller block and with the Real Salt Lake America First Field,” Kimball said.
The fan experience is a priority for the Miller company, according to Smith, who acknowledged the entertainment production that live professional sporting events have become.
She noted how the additional seating will make the stadium louder and increase the energy felt during RSL games.
The company is looking to do the same with the Royals, including possibly shifting the seating “to create that same energy,” Smith said.
“We’re really challenging our marketing and game experience team to continue to stretch in how we’re connecting with the fans and creating traditions and just enjoying the experience even more.”