Real Salt Lake Owner Dell Loy Hansen: "The disrespect was profound to me, personally."
Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen said he felt "disrespected" by his players after they made the decision to not play against LAFC on Wednesday.
The club opted to sit out Wednesday's MLS contest in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wis.
Real Salt Lake and LAFC decided not to play as a show of solidarity with NBA, WNBA and MLB teams who also opted to protest racial injustice.
"All I can say is they supported other issues nationally; they clearly did not support our city or our organization," Hansen said on Wednesday. "It’s a moment of sadness. It’s like somebody stabbed you and you’re trying to figure out a way to pull the knife out and move forward. That’s what it feels like. The disrespect is profound to me personally."
Hansen and Real Salt Lake recently brought 40 employees back into the organization following a slate of furloughs in April. But Hansen said that decision may be reversed after Wednesday's strike.
"We will not be inviting fans back to the stadium in the future, so tomorrow. ...I start cutting 40 to 50 jobs again,” Hansen said. “We would not go through the risk of inviting people back to have that kind of an outcome.”
Former Real Salt Lake player Nick Rimando said he was "disgusted" by Hansen's comments. Jazz point guard Donovan Mitchell and Toronto FC's Jozy Altidore called on Hansen to sell the team.
It's undetermined whether Real Salt Lake will play the Timbers on Saturday. The match is slated to be held in Portland at 10:30 p.m. E.T.