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The Miller family has reached an agreement to buy MLS club Real Salt Lake and the NWSL’s Utah Royals, according to multiple people familiar with the details.
The Millers, who used to own the Utah Jazz, are buying control of both soccer franchises from a group led by David Blitzer. A formal announcement is expected Friday afternoon, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. Sportico first reported that the two sides were in advanced talks last month.
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It’s unclear how the two clubs are being valued in the deal. Blitzer will remain as a minority owner, one of the people said, meaning he will remain the only person Sportico is aware of to own a piece of franchises in all five major U.S. leagues.
A representative for the team declined to comment. An email sent to the Larry H. Miller Co., co-founded and owned by Gail Miller, wasn’t immediately returned.
Miller is worth $4.4 billion, according to Forbes, making her the richest person in Utah. Real Salt Lake is worth $525 million, according to Sportico’s MLS valuations, a number that includes the NWSL team. The Royals alone are worth $70 million, according to Sportico’s NWSL valuations from September.
A sale would conclude a short period in control for Blitzer, who bought RSL in 2022 in an MLS-brokered deal that valued the team at nearly $400 million. His minority partners in the transaction included current Jazz and Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith, and Arctos Partners. The purchase included the local USL team, Rio Tinto Stadium (now America First Field) and a nearby training complex.
It also contained the right to add an NWSL team at a heavily reduced price. That fee was originally $500,000, Sportico previously reported, though it was revised up to about $2 million in Blitzer’s deal. The Utah Royals rejoined the league in 2024, the same year as Bay FC, which paid a $53 million expansion fee to join NWSL.
The Miller family owned the Jazz from 1986 to 2020, when Smith bought a majority of the team in a $1.66 billion deal (the family initially stayed on as minority investor). Larry Miller bought the team for $24 million, and it remained in the Larry H. Miller Co. after he died in 2009. The group owns the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team, as well as the Bees’ next stadium in South Jordan, Utah.
Blitzer’s sale marks an oddity in American sports because it would represent the first time in nearly 30 years that a single franchise accounted for consecutive sales in any major U.S. league, according to Sportico’s data. The last incidence of back-to-back deals in a league involved the NHL’s New York Islanders in 1996 and 1997.
Real Salt Lake is 3-5-0 this season, in 10th place in MLS’s Western Conference. The Utah Royals are 0-3-1, in last place in the NWSL.
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