"This is going to be a black eye for our community for a long time if we aren't able to bail it out," Anderson told KSL-Newsradio. Anderson did not return phone calls to the Deseret Morning News Monday.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, doesn't support the idea. He told the Deseret Morning News on Monday, "I've said all along it's not a state-funded responsibility."

And a spokesman for the governor said, "Gov. Huntsman has long championed professional soccer in Utah and is disappointed with this new development."

Checketts refused to comment on the team's future in the Salt Lake Valley. He said all he could guarantee is a great final season for the fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium: "I'm going to give them the best season I possibly can."

When pressed for details on possible buyers or cities interested in purchasing the team, Checketts said, "If I'm going to turn this ship, I'm going to need to think about it."

Checketts met with MLS Commissioner Don Garber Monday to talk about the team's options. Real's lease at Rice-Eccles Stadium expires at the end of the 2007 season.

When another stadium deal fell apart last summer, Garbe said, investors in Rochester, N.Y., and St. Louis contacted the league about purchasing the franchise.

Teams unable to build their own stadiums have short life spans in the MLS. In the past five years, one MLS team folded and another relocated, partly because the teams could not secure a soccer-specific stadium. The Tampa Bay Mutiny folded in 2002 and the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston in 2005.

"Real Salt Lake cannot be successful long term without a new stadium," Garber said in a statement. "In that regard, Real Salt Lake is no different than any other professional sports team in America."

Ultimately, what doomed the team were shaky finances, according to Corroon.

He said he worried that even a slight dip in ticket revenue could cause the team to default on bills.

Corroon also based his decision on a recommendation from the county's Debt Review Committee. It said the team is not financially viable. The committee found that Real wouldn't have enough money to pay its $3.3 million in yearly debt obligations on the stadium in four out of the next seven years.

He also said that the county couldn't find any sort of realistic scenario that showed the team breaking into the black.

"When the risk is such that it's gambling, we just didn't want to take the gamble," Corroon said. "This is an unsafe investment for the county."

Checketts maintains that investing in Real's future would be no gamble at all.

"I obviously disagree with the mayor on this being an unsafe investment," Checketts said. "They would have owned the underlying real estate and some of the most valuable land and facilities in the state."