With a statewide tour wrapped up and an April 9 deadline looming, sponsors of a petition drive are desperately hoping they can garner a total of 100,000 signatures.

The group, "Get Real Utah," filed a referendum request earlier this month and has since started a grassroots effort to let voters decide whether or not public dollars should be used for Real Salt Lake's soccer stadium in Sandy.

That $35 million comes from Salt Lake County's hotel tax and was approved for use on land and parking at the site by the Legislature in February. Because the state body passed the law, 91,966 signatures of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election must be collected from at least 15 counties statewide for the petition to be accepted.

Those strict requirements mean the group intends to get 100,000 signatures, because thousands likely will be ruled invalid.

Brad Swedlund, a 50-year-old Salt Lake City resident, is leading the charge. He took a week off work last week for a 13-county tour to collect signatures.

Numerous people around the state have stepped up to distribute petitions — making it virtually impossible to keep track of how many signatures have been collected — and those petitions are directly turned in to their respective county clerks, Swedlund said. Last week, he reported that 35,000 signatures had been collected.

"I really have no idea how many there are," he said. "We just don't have the budget. We have signature pages out there for close to 100,000. I'm guessing they're maybe half full."

According to two Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV polls, the majority of Utahns believe the Legislature should not have given the soccer team public money. But the deal had bipartisan support from both the House and Senate in February.

Swedlund, on the other hand, said the response for his cause has been overwhelming. He's set up a site at www.getrealutah.org for people to get involved.

Former Sandy mayoral candidate Gary Forbush, who ran against current Mayor Tom Dolan in 2005 and lost a tight race, is also involved in Get Real Utah. Forbush was one of the sponsors of a voter referendum against the development of Sandy's gravel pit.

"I've been concerned about it from the get-go," he said.

Forbush was one of dozens of public officials who sat on the front row of the highly publicized 2005 announcement that Real had picked Sandy as its home. He said the first thing he asked Real owner Dave Checketts was details of stadium funding. Checketts took his card, Forbush said, but he never heard from him.

"It's been a really poor approach, when you're wanting to endear the community to you and build support. I respect that he's a shrewd businessman, but I'm not impressed with the approach that's been taken," Forbush said. "Whether it gets approved or not, it needs to be on the ballot to get a better conversation about the pros and cons."