Overview

America First Field is the home stadium for Real Salt Lake and the Utah Royals, serving MLS and NWSL fans as well as year-round concert and private-event audiences. The previous site wasn’t meeting business goals for ticket pathways, attendee information, or venue-rental promotion. We created a custom Figma design system covering the full sitemap and component library, then built a custom WordPress site that centralizes stadium info (policies, parking, directions), showcases upcoming events, and surfaces event spaces with capacities/amenities and rental inquiries—supporting both game-day operations and non-event revenue.

Client quick facts

  • Client: America First Field — Stadium & events venue (Sandy, UT)
  • Platform / Stack: WordPress (custom instance, templates, custom fields), Figma design system, GA4 + GTM
  • Services Delivered: UX & IA, custom design system (Figma), custom WordPress development, events publishing, policy/parking hub, venue-rental architecture, on-page & technical SEO, schema implementation

Client Goals & Pain Points

Context

The site needed to serve multiple audiences—sports fans, concertgoers, and corporate/private renters while giving the internal team fast, reliable tools to publish event and policy updates.

Goals

  • Make stadium information easy to find (parking, clear bag policy, gate times, prohibited items)
  • Add an events module for concerts and matches with clear buy-tickets pathways
  • Promote venue spaces (suites, clubs, rooms) with capacities, amenities, availability, and rental inquiries
  • Provide straightforward navigation for RSL/Utah Royals fans and event attendees

Pain Points

  • Dispersed or outdated information led to support load and attendee confusion
  • No consistent system for upcoming events and external ticket links
  • Venue rental content was under-exposed and hard to update
  • Navigation didn’t reflect the distinct needs of fans vs renters vs concertgoers

Success Criteria

  • Clear wayfinding to tickets and policies in ≤2 clicks from the homepage
  • Editable, schema-backed events entries the team can publish quickly
  • Venue spaces presented with capacity/amenities and inquiry forms
  • Measurable engagement with ticket links and rental CTAs

Approach & Strategy

Discovery & UX

  • Worked with stakeholders to define primary journeys: Find tickets, Know before you go (policies, parking), Book a space
  • Re-mapped the information architecture to separate Attend (events, tickets, policies) from Host (spaces, rentals)

Design System (Figma)

  • Built a custom Figma design system aligned to brand fonts, imagery, and marks
  • Component library for event cards, policy callouts, space spec tables, photo galleries, and sticky action bars
  • Design tokens and page templates covering the entire sitemap for a consistent handoff to development

Development & Publishing Tools (WordPress)

  • Custom WordPress instance with tailored templates and fields for Events, Policies, Parking/Directions, and Venue Spaces
  • Events Module (WP): Create/update concerts and stadium events with date/time, headliners/opponents, location, and external ticket purchase links
  • Policies & Parking Hub: Centralized content types for bag policy, prohibited/permitted items, ADA info, parking maps, and rideshare zones
  • Venue Spaces: Structured entries with capacity, layout options, amenities, availability notes, photo galleries, and Inquire forms that route to sales/events
  • Editor-friendly blocks/fields so staff can publish updates without developer support

Lead Capture & CTAs

  • Buy Tickets surfaced on event cards, event detail pages, and sticky action bars
  • Inquire to Rent on every space page; secondary CTAs on related pages (Corporate Events, Group Outings)

SEO Foundation

  • On-page optimization, internal linking between events, policies, spaces, and directions
  • Performance practices: responsive images, lazy loading, deferring non-critical scripts, caching/CDN

Key Features (Technology & UX)

  • Events Directory & Details (WordPress) — Consistent event cards with date/time and prominent Buy Tickets links
  • Know-Before-You-Go Hub — Policies, clear bag rules, parking maps, ADA details, and directions in one place
  • Venue Spaces Catalog — Capacity/amenities tables, photos, availability notes, and an Inquire flow per space
  • Audience-Aware Navigation — Short paths tailored to Attend vs Host tasks
  • Editor-Ready WP Templates — Structured post types and blocks so staff can keep information fresh

Performance & SEO Highlights

  • Markup & Structure: Single H1 per template, consistent H2/H3, descriptive alt text, internal links to related content
  • Schema Coverage: StadiumOrArena/Place for the venue, Event for concerts/matches, BreadcrumbList for navigation clarity, FAQPage for policies
  • Tracking: GA4 goals for ticket-link CTR and rental inquiries; event funnels for homepage → event → ticket, and space → inquiry

Results

  • A single source of truth for stadium policies and event info reduced attendee confusion and support friction
  • Up-to-date events with direct ticket pathways improved discoverability and conversion from the site
  • Venue spaces now drive qualified rental inquiries with clear specs and simple forms
  • Editors can publish faster with a Figma-to-WordPress workflow and structured entries, keeping content current across seasons