Thursday night begins a new era in Real Salt Lake’s history; the opening of RSL’s brand new home, Rio Tinto Stadium. ESPN2’s PrimeTime Thursday will be there to show RSL vs the NY Red Bulls at 8pm local Mountain time.

There are some great photos of the stadium at the official website.

Tonight will be a sellout, and emotions are running hot.

RSL already missing astro-turf advantage?!? No way, grass is sweet.

RSL Owner Dave Checketts with an intriguing interview - Liverpool for next year’s All-Star Game?

I looked around and found a couple interesting photos after the jump…

Here is the original design for the stadium, before the changes.

This guy on Flickr recently got an cool night shot inside the stadium before the big opening. Check out the roof, nice.

You can’t forget the politicians who originally approved this project, which was a gutsy call. I love the guys wearing the scarfs and check out their expressions - they just approved millions for soccer…kinda scary, huh?

A construction worker representing…

There was some weird stuff on this land that they had to clear out. What are these people below doing with metal detectors? Who is “Smiley 13″ (spray painted on the house)?

The groundbreaking was a pretty big deal. A lot has changed since this photo; Becks went to the Galaxy and Capello went to coach England. Will they be watching the game tonight together at England’s training center and sharing memories of digging in with their shovels?

Some video of the groundbreaking.

Image via Stadiony, flickr, 2, 3, Mlsnet, Sportsbusiness