David Blitzer is in advanced talks to sell control stakes in Salt Lake City’s two main soccer teams—MLS’ Real Salt Lake and the NWSL’s Utah Royals—according to multiple people familiar with the talks.
Blitzer is nearing a deal to relinquish control to the Miller family, the former owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. It would mark a short time in control for Blitzer, who bought RSL in 2022 and revived the Royals the following year.
It’s unclear how the teams are being valued in the transaction, and Blitzer is expected to remain an investor, two people said. Real Salt Lake is worth $525 million according to Sportico’s MLS valuations, a number that includes the NWSL team. The Royals are worth $70 million according to Sportico’s NWSL valuations.
Nothing has been signed, and it’s possible a sale will not happen. Representatives for Blitzer and the teams declined immediate comment. A representative for the Larry H. Miller Co. didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Blitzer bought Real Salt Lake from embattled owner Dell Loy Hansen in an MLS-brokered deal that valued the club at nearly $400 million. His minority partners in the deal included current Jazz 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 included the right to add an NWSL team at a heavily reduced price. When the original Utah Royals were relocated to Kansas City, the NWSL gave Real Salt Lake an option to revive the team via expansion at a later date. That price was originally $500,000, Sportico previously reported, though it was revised up to about $2 million in Blitzer’s transactions.
That purchase came in the middle of a significant jump in NWSL valuations that continue to this day. When the Royals originally moved, teams were selling for $1 or $2 million; by the time Blitzer executed the option in 2023, the league was already running an expansion process that ultimately secured fees of $53 million. The newest team in Denver just agreed to pay an expansion fee of $110 million.
Blitzer is the first person Sportico is aware of to be invested in all five major U.S. men’s leagues. He is co-owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils, an investor in the NFL’s Washington Commanders and an investor in MLB’s Cleveland Guardians, with a path to control in the next few years. He also has a number of soccer holdings, include a stake in EPL team Crystal Palace and control of more than a half dozen other European soccer clubs via Bolt Ventures, his sports-focused family office.
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 still owns the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team, as well as the Bees’ next stadium in South Jordan, Utah.
The group’s non-sports holdings include real estate, senior health facilities, consumer goods and technology investments. The group is led by co-founder Gail Miller, Larry’s former wife, and chairman Steve Miller, one of their sons.
With assistance from Scott Soshnick.