March 14, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – Utah Royals News Release
SANDY, UTAH – Today, Utah Royals FC (National Women’s Soccer League) / Real Salt Lake (Major League Soccer) and KAGR (Kraft Analytics Group), a leading sports technology and analytics company, announced a multi-year partnership to accelerate the Utah soccer properties’ joint data-first approach to growing soccer fandom in Utah. KAGR will help enrich data strategies for both RSL and URFC, while providing best-in-class lenses into consumer behavior on both RSL / Royals FC matchdays and beyond. The KAGR data platform will empower the Club’s Sales & Marketing and Gameday Experience teams through foundational data warehousing, data management, predictive analytics, business intelligence visualizations, and strategic marketing capabilities.
With Saturday’s upcoming “inaugural” match, Utah Royals FC returns the NWSL to Utah for the first time since the 2020 Challenge Cup, the Club aiming to recapture its 10,000+ average attendance established in the 2018/19 seasons – only Portland topped Utah in attendance in those years – the new era aiming to take community engagement and civic partnership to entirely new levels. Real Salt Lake recently kicked off its 20th season in MLS and boasts one of the most avid fan bases in the league, selling out its America First Field home over 30 times in the last two years, while boasting new attendance and revenue records since David Blitzer, Ryan Smith and associated entities assumed Ownership in January, 2022.
Working closely with the RSL / URFC teams, KAGR will build a new foundational data layer for both initiatives, breaking down silos across data sources from ticketing, email, and CRM to SMS, ecommerce, and surveys. KAGR will integrate survey and web form responses collected from Qualtrics, a global company founded by Owner Ryan Smith and regarded as a leader in its space worldwide, to both enhance the consumer profile and create predictive models for decision-making, including retention, lead scoring, and customer lifetime value.
“Ownership has prioritized building the foundation for the Utah Royals to be on the cutting edge of data analytics on both the business and sporting sides,” said Utah Royals FC President Michelle Hyncik. “Integrating the KAGR suite of tools and learnings to foster innovation, growth and attention to detail in all our practices, both externally and internally, will both accelerate and heighten our cohesion with the…