From Deseret News archives:

Capitol abuzz over Real Salt Lake

Efforts aim to keep team in Utah; Geneva site ruled out

Published: Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 9:01 a.m. MST
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Lawmakers are juggling options to fund a Real Salt Lake soccer stadium in Utah — and likely, only in Salt Lake County.

Real officials said Thursday that they have decided the former Geneva Steel site in Vineyard, Utah County, is no longer a "viable option for our team or the stadium project." Anderson Geneva, an affiliate of Sandy-based Anderson Development LLC, owns the Utah County site and had met with Real officials Wednesday to discuss an offer.

"We continue to look at other options both within Salt Lake County and outside the state of Utah," team officials said Thursday.

Anderson Geneva officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

On Capitol Hill, numerous bills are surfacing as possible options for the team and stadium to stay in the Beehive State. The legislative action comes after Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon on Monday denied the Major League Soccer team's request for $30 million in hotel-room tax dollars from the county for a $110 million stadium in Sandy.

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At least one bill could allow the state to give away the county dollars that Corroon had refused to hand out. HB38 was substituted Thursday on the House floor to take more than $26 million of Salt Lake County's hotel-room tax revenue over the next 10 years and put it into a new state-controlled fund.

Sponsored by Rep. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan, the bill would divert 15 percent of the county's hotel-room tax revenue for 10 years. That's enough to raise $26 million, said Darrin Casper, the county's chief financial officer.

But Newbold said the bill is not intended to give money to the stadium project. She said it is specifically to be used for parking and traffic projects, such as building the South Towne parking garage or alleviating congestion around the Salt Palace Convention Center.

"The soccer stadium is another issue. I have nothing to do with that," she said. "People can be creative. But stadiums are not included."

However, if lawmakers were to create a sports commission for the south valley — as many are suggesting they will — the $26 million could be funneled there and used for a stadium.

House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said again Thursday that he's no longer taking the lead in pushing for legislative action on Real. But he suggested that Newbold's bill could be used to fund the project.

"I do have legislation that one of my colleagues is running to capture the money for the parking structure that has been talked about," Curtis said. "But there's no money in that for anything regarding Real until there's a decision by other key policymakers to be involved."

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