The professional sports team owner trying to lead with love

Editor’s note: The Utah Royals FC season ended Saturday with a 2-1 loss to the Washington Spirit in the NWSL semifinals.

Gail Miller never thought she’d own a professional women’s sports team again.

Over two decades after she and her husband’s WNBA team, the Utah Starzz, moved to San Antonio, Miller reentered the world of women’s sports when The Larry H. Miller Company purchased the NWSL’s Utah Royals FC, along with MLS’s Real Salt Lake, in April 2025.

A year later, Miller’s Royals play the Washington Spirit in the semifinals of the NWSL playoffs on Saturday — just two wins shy of the team’s first NWSL championship.

Miller was there for the No. 7 Royals’ upset of No. 2 San Diego Wave FC in the quarterfinals.

“Oh, it was electric,” she told the Deseret News. “It was so fun to be in an opposing stadium with a win, and especially after how well they played. That’s a big field to defend, and then to be aggressive too, it really showed their talent. It was fun to be there.”

On the eve of the Royals’ semifinal match, the Deseret News sat down with Miller at The Larry H. Miller Company office in Sandy, Utah. With a view of America First Field behind her, Miller talked about her love for the Royals, what the club brings to Utah and what it’s like to be the female owner of a professional women’s sports team.

Lead with love

There’s a Gail Miller saying that has permeated the Larry H. Miller Company. Miller Sports + Entertainment President Michelle Smith and Utah Royals players quote it in interviews: “Lead with love and success will follow.”

Royals players have been vocal throughout the season about the club’s togetherness. In a May postgame press conference, midfielder Courtney Brown declared the club’s “superpower is that we like each other.”

That togetherness is what Miller noticed as the Royals knocked off the Wave, a championship favorite and a club they’d never beaten before.

“I love how they love each other, how they play together, how they enjoy being a team, and they have one purpose and one goal to work toward,” she said. “And that’s obvious the way they are, not only on the field, but in private. They like each other, they play together, they work together. It’s really fun to watch.”

Before the season started, Miller met with each player individually at a dinner to get to know them better. In those conversations, she was impressed by the love the players expressed for each other.

“You don’t often talk about love in a business sense, and in a way, this is a business, but still, there’s plenty of room for affection, and working together and caring about each other,” she said. “And I think that’s what really makes it work. If you have contention, if you have differences that you take on the court with you or on the field with you, it affects how you play. So the fact that they do like each other makes a big difference.”

As Miller predicted, the Royals have found success as they’ve led and played with love. The team went from just six wins last season to 14 wins and a playoff berth this season.

Miller wants the players to know that their owner loves and supports them, too. In fact, it’s part of her job description. She described her role with the club as owner first, supporter second and fan third.

“It’s a recreation for me as well as a business,” she said. “It’s somewhere where I can go and watch and appreciate what’s going on and be invested to the degree I am and not have to worry a whole lot about the financial part of it. Every basketball game is a lot of money. Soccer hasn’t quite risen to that level yet, but I’m sure it will increase. So I can go and enjoy it as a fan.”

She tries to attend as many matches in-person as she can to show her support. She high-fived each of the players as they made their way onto the pitch in San Diego for warm-ups. After the final whistle, with the victory secured, the players demanded Miller join their team photo on the pitch.

“Fortunately, I think we’ve won every time I’ve gone,” she said. “I don’t get there as often as I’d like to, but I think they’re aware that I do support them, that I appreciate what they do, and that I’m there backing them — not just me, but the whole company, our whole team. We all enjoy it.”

In Miller’s 19 months at the helm of the club, Royals players have reminded her of a lesson she said she’s known all along but needed reinforcing.

“They need to know that there is a group that backs them, that they’re not alone,” she said. “That we will do whatever we can to provide the tools they need to do what they need to do out on the field. We’ll provide the pitch, we’ll provide the opportunity to increase their skills, we’ll provide the equipment they need, the training they need, the support they need.

“And I think that’s really important to them to know that we as an organization are there helping them and cheering them on every bit of the way. Because without that, why would they do this? They could go somewhere else and get what they need, but we want to provide whatever they need to be the best they can because it benefits all of us.”

Wading back into women’s sports

The state of women’s sports has changed drastically since the Starzz left Utah in 2002. The interest and demand for women’s sports is up.

For the Royals, single-game ticket sales increased 78% from 2025, according to Miller Sports + Entertainment.

Total tickets distributed increased by 21% and average single-game tickets sold per match increased by 55%. Nearly 90% of season ticket holders have renewed their season tickets for next season.

Miller has tried to make attending a Royals match as affordable as possible, running a “first match on us” promotion, where fans could attend their first match for free. Nearly 1,000 of those tickets were claimed in 2026, and the organization will continue the promotion in 2027.

The Royals also offer the most affordable pricing in the league, according to MSE, with season tickets starting at $150, which breaks down to $10 a match, and single-game entry starting at $18.

“I think there’s more respect for it,” Miller said of women’s sports. “I think women are acknowledged as athletes more than they used to be in their own right as females, and I think that’s important because we don’t want to be men. We just want to be good women, good athletes.”

That recognition of women as talented athletes, Miller said, has “elevated the sport.”

“I think men respect them more,” she said. “They don’t feel so much like they’re trying to come into their area. They feel like there is room for both men and women to play sports and have the support they need.”

As a female owner of a professional women’s sports team, Miller said she is able to identify with the Royals players “on a different level” than she was able to with the Utah Jazz.

“I can be closer, not only in proximity, but in relationship with the women,” she said. “There’s a better understanding between how we feel and what we do and how we look at things. Men are pretty strong in their own right, and they don’t really see a woman owner as someone who understands their sport as well as a man does. So I think that’s probably a difference that I see.”

What the Utah Royals bring to Utah

The NWSL first came to Utah in 2018 but after three seasons — including a shortened 2020 season — the Royals were sold and relocated to Kansas City. The club returned in 2024 under owner David Blitzer, who remains a minority owner of both the Royals and RSL. The Millers purchased the club right after the start of the Royals’ second season in 2025.

It was Utah’s first professional women’s sports team since the Utah Starzz. With the Royals’ return, the club introduced young girls to new role models.

“I think one of the most important things they bring is the excitement for young women, for girls, that are watching what they do, and the idea that there’s something I can get into, there’s something I can aspire to because it’s available to me. It’s here, it’s in my backyard, and if they can do it, then hopefully there’s room for me,” Miller said.

The Royals’ role models go beyond what the players’ fans see on the pitch every week. It extends to sporting director Kelly Cousins, Smith and Miller, herself, which is a responsibility the 83-year-old owner doesn’t take lightly.

“There are people watching you when you’re in a position of influence,” she said. “It’s really important to remember that people are watching you, and the things you do and say make a difference.”

For Miller, that means being a source of encouragement and love.

“We need that today,” she said. “We need to know that there’s hope in the future, that there’s aspiration we can attain. I think being a role model, whether we like that role or not, is one that we have to take seriously and use to our advantage and to the advantage of those that are watching in a way that helps build lives.

“Because there’s so many areas that can tear down someone’s self-esteem, but this is an area where girls can grow and develop and become something more than they ever thought they could if they’re encouraged and supported.”

Miller wishes the rest of Utah and the NWSL understood “just what fine people” the Royals players are.

“I think that comes through in a team effort, in the fact that they do care about each other,” she said. “But I really think that is evident as they play, as they work together and as they win games. Or even if they lose games, they’re still together. They don’t let it discourage them. Probably every team knows that, or at least hopes they have it, but I think with our team, it’s just so real and so open. And I’m really proud of these girls.”

The pursuit of a long-awaited championship

At the mention of the Royals being just two wins away from a championship, Miller smiled and said “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

It would be an achievement both the club’s fans and owners have waited years for. In the first iteration of the Royals, the club never made the playoffs. In the first two seasons back, the Royals finished 11th and 12th out of 14 in NWSL standings.

In the 35 years that the Miller family owned the Utah Jazz, the team made it to the NBA Finals twice but fell just short of a championship. The Utah Royals could give the Millers their first and long-awaited championship.

“I think we’d have a big celebration,” Miller said. “We would tell the world how good we are, what we’d done, how we’ve accomplished it, and then unfortunately, it’s fleeting. You have to go on to the next year, and that’s the sad part about winning. After you win, there’s no place to go except keep up the hard work and try again.”

In her book, “Courage to Be You,” Miller wrote, “The only way to win a championship is to continuously work, plan, prepare and tackle each day with patience for a better tomorrow.” According to Miller, the 2026 Royals have all of those ingredients.

“They think it 24 hours a day,” she said. “It’s in them, and that’s what they’re doing every day, is working toward that championship. And that’s what a champion is. You live it. It’s in you. It’s what drives you. I think it would be just the best thing in the world if they won this.”

Miller plans to be in Audi Stadium for the match, though Friday’s FAA restrictions threatened to keep the Royals’ good luck charm in Utah. She’s getting on a 5 a.m. MST flight Saturday to support her team in D.C. before kickoff at 10 a.m. MST.

Hopefully for Royals fans, Miller’s win streak continues. Nineteen hours before kickoff, Miller shared what she’d tell the team ahead of the biggest match in Utah Royals history.

“I know you can do it,” she said. “You’ve worked hard. Take this opportunity to showcase your skills. Do your very best. But win or lose, we love you and we’re here for you. We’ll back you all the way, and if you win, we’re going to have a huge celebration.”