Salt Lake City, UT -- (Sports Network) - Real Salt Lake Owner Dave Checketts announced that the club will host its final two 2008 regular-season Major League Soccer games - Oct. 9 vs. New York and Oct. 18 vs. FC Dallas - in the newly constructed Real Salt Lake Soccer Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

The announcement was made Tuesday after Checketts successfully agreed with the Layton-Turner Construction joint venture to accelerate construction of the soccer specific stadium, which will replace Rice-Eccles Stadium as the home of RSL.

"I would like to express the deepest thanks and sincerest gratitude to Mayor Dolan and the City of Sandy, the Layton-Turner joint venture, Rossetti Architects, the site's thousands of workers who performed nearly five million man-hours of work, and everyone associated with the project in helping our dreams become reality," Checketts said. "Opening ahead of schedule, with both games televised live nationally, enables not only the sporting culture of Utah but also fans of the world's most popular sport to uniquely experience our new home."

Construction on the new stadium began in April of last year, with scheduled completion in the fall of 2008. The 19-month construction schedule is aggressive, considering the size and scope of the stadium.

"We've made such tremendous progress at the stadium that an early opening is possible," David S. Layton, President/CEO of The Layton Companies, said. "With a concerted effort from the joint venture team and our great subcontractors, we will turn over the stadium three weeks ahead of schedule to accommodate RSL's plans for an early opening."

According to RSL, field irrigation and drainage systems are complete, and the natural grass playing surface is 30 days away from establishing its root structure before becoming playable. Construction work also continues in concession areas, administrative offices and parking areas. Seats are also currently being installed while glass installation and suite and locker room finish work is ongoing. The structural steel support for the main video screen and scoreboard is complete, with the raising and testing of the video board is slated for coming weeks.