About a week and a half ago I found myself in Lehi again at the FrontRunner train station out there. I had some time to kill and it was actually a beautiful morning with cool temperatures, a few clouds in the sky, and the sun just barely popping its head up over the mountain tops.
I thought, let's go check out the old RSL Xango stomping grounds. Let's see if they've kept it up at all because last time it was starting to show some decline with mangled goalposts and such.
(see my 2022 "Ghosts of Xango" post here)
https://rslcup.blogspot.com/2022/07/ghosts-of-xango.html
Wow, was I shocked. At least last time there was still some grass growing. This time nature has totally taken over and started to reclaim the area.
Now, I'm big on water conservation. I think Utah is doing about as poor as you can do with water conservation. People seem to have completely forgotten that the Great Salt Lake almost dried up completely 3 years or 4 years ago and if it weren't for a very lucky big winter 2 years ago we would be in trouble.
So, I am all for not watering an area just for the sake of watering it.
But I still was a little befuddled as to what they are doing with the old practice field, which is pretty much nothing.
Anyway, as I walked around the fence line I told myself to keep my eyes open. You never know when you might find a treasure hiding in the brush. So I set off, like an old German Shorthaired pointer in search of an elusive ring neck pheasant hiding in the open farmland of West Weber, Warren, or Plain City, (at least there used to be open farmland out there when I was kid, probably not anymore though) I was hoping I might find some old discarded RSL swag. An old T-shirt perhaps, an old practice worn sock with a hole in it, or maybe if I'm lucky the holy grail, and old sweat stained jock strap.
As I rounded the area however I found nothing. A discarded water bottle and a smashed energy drink can was all I saw. Oh, there was one of those "i9sports" signs laying on the ground, forgotten. At least it did have a soccer ball on it, kind of apropos. I felt like that sums up the state of soccer in Utah, kind of discarded, in the dirt, forgotten.
It isn't so much RSL's fault though, it's the league, it's MLS' fault. What a horrible league, how many teams are there now in MLS?
30.
You can't have a soccer league with 30 teams in it, that is chaos. What are they doing?
Oh well, what do I care? I haven't cared for years, soccer is pretty much the last thing on my mind now. Except when I'm in Lehi and see an old soccer goal post off in the distance, sad...... lonely..... longing for days of yore.
At least I got to see a pretty sunrise.
