With today’s announcement of the 2012 Major League Soccer regular season schedule, Real Salt Lake learned the 34-game slate that will mark its eighth season of MLS play. Real Salt Lake will begin the upcoming season on Saturday, March 10, where its last campaign ended – The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. – with a Western Conference Championship rematch against the defending MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy, with kickoff slated for 8:30 p.m. MT. 

A week later on Saturday, March 17, RSL will host the first of its 17 regular season home contests at Rio Tinto Stadium with another marquee match-up, as international star Thierry Henry will lead the New York Red Bulls into Sandy for a 7:00 p.m. MT kickoff. Currently, the only ways for fans to guarantee their seats on opening night in Sandy is to Join the Pride by becoming an RSL Season Ticket Holder or purchase a 10-Game Flex Voucher Pack, both of which can be fulfilled by visiting the “TICKETS” section of www.RealSaltLake.com or calling 801-727-2700. Real Salt Lake will announce details for single-game ticket availability in the upcoming weeks. 

The RSL-Galaxy showdown on March 10 will be part of that day’s five-game slate beginning First Kick 2012, presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods, which will continue with two Sunday games – including the first MLS game on NBC Sports Network (FC Dallas v. New York) – and concludes with a special Monday night contest on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes (Portland v. Philadelphia). 

All 323 regular season matches will be televised live – 89 by national U.S. network partners ESPN, NBC, and Univision (on Galavisión) in the United States. Real Salt Lake will be featured on four national broadcasts, all coming on NBC Sports Network during the second half of the season (July 18 @ Seattle, Aug. 24 @ Philadelphia, Sept. 22 v. Portland & Oct. 6 @ Los Angeles). All non-national TV games will be broadcast locally and/or via subscription to Direct Kick and MLSsoccer.com’s live streaming package; Real Salt Lake will announce details for its 2012 local broadcast schedule in the upcoming weeks. 

The 2012 MLS Regular Season will conclude Sunday, Oct. 28 with three games, followed by the MLS Cup Playoffs and the championship game – MLS Cup 2012 – on Dec. 1, hosted by one of the two finalists. From First Kick to MLS Cup, the calendar footprint of the 2012 season is 267 days – the longest in League history (as is the regular season, at 232 days). 

“RSL Nation” will have several chances to get an early glimpse at their Claret-and-Cobalt, as Real Salt Lake will follow its road opener in Los Angeles with four of its next five contests at home, including the lone contest of the season against the Red Bulls, a visit by former Assistant Coach Robin Fraser and his Chivas USA squad (Mar. 24), the first-ever meeting against expansion newcomer Montreal Impact and ex-RSL midfielder Collen Warner (Apr. 4) and the first of three 2012 Rocky Mountain Cup showdowns against the archrival Colorado Rapids (Apr. 7). 

Real Salt Lake will then have to get used to the road during a grueling 29-day stretch that will see the Claret-and-Cobalt play five of seven games on the road, starting with a three-game run at Sporting Kansas City (Apr. 14), San Jose (Apr. 21) and FC Dallas (Apr. 25) and ending with a cross-country trip from Chicago (May 9) to Seattle (May 12). In between those road trips, RSL will play host to Eastern Conference sides Toronto FC and the New England Revolution at Rio Tinto Stadium. 

The Utah side will have ample time to recover from its travels, as a bye weekend and back-to-back FIFA fixture dates will result in only one regular season match – a May 26 meeting at home against FC Dallas – from mid-May to mid-June. While the league may be largely off duty during that time, its clubs may still be in action during the month-long layover, as an anticipated switch in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup calendar and competition format could result in USOC games being contested during the time frame. 

RSL will get back to action with a week-long “California Crash Course” that opens with a June 16 contest at Chivas USA and ends in Sandy with matches against the Galaxy (June 20) and San Jose (June 23). The following weekend’s road contest at the Columbus Crew on June 30 will mark the Claret-and-Cobalt’s lone match against Eastern Conference opposition during a three-and-a-half month run that will see RSL play 14 of 15 contests against its fellow Western foes. 

The next six weeks will be set aside largely for Cascadian clubs and Colorado, beginning with RSL’s annual July 4^th affair that this year brings Seattle to the Wasatch Front for an 8:00 p.m. kickoff, which will be followed by a visit from the Portland Timbers three days later. After a quick road swing west to San Jose (July 14) and Seattle (July 18) – the latter of which will mark RSL’s 2012 national broadcast debut on NBC Sports Network – Real Salt Lake and the Rapids will settle their Rocky Mountain Cup series at its earliest point ever thanks to clashes two weeks apart in Sandy on July 21 and at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Aug. 4, the former marking RSL’s eighth annual “Pioneer Day Celebration” game (8:00 p.m. kickoff). 

The Utah side will alternate the two rivalry showdowns against the Rapids with contests against Vancouver Whitecaps FC – first in Sandy on July 27, then at BC Place on Aug. 11 – before settling its season account with FC Dallas at home on Aug. 18. The Claret-and-Cobalt will then turn their attention to the Eastern Conference for the next three games, starting with a road trip to Philadelphia (Aug. 24), continuing with the Sept. 1 Sandy homecoming for Robbie Russell and the rest of D.C. United and concluding with RSL’s first trip to the Houston Dynamo’s new home of BBVA Compass Stadium (Sept. 6).

While another FIFA window and bye weekend follow that stretch, there will likely be no rest for Real Salt Lake, which anticipates its return to CONCACAF Champions League play to begin in late-July or early-August and continue through October. CONCACAF will announce the competition format and dates for the 2012/13 edition of the tournament in the upcoming months. 

The anticipated CCL contests will help fill in the gaps of a fairly relaxed final stretch for RSL, which starts with three consecutive Saturday affairs, beginning in Sandy against Portland (Sept. 22) and finishing with back-to-back trips to The Home Depot Center to face Chivas USA (Sept. 29) and the Galaxy (Oct. 6). Following another FIFA international window and bye weekend, Real Salt Lake will finally conclude its regular season campaign on Saturday, Oct. 27 by playing host to Vancouver.