Checketts, Real poised for stadium construction

SANDY — Eight months after the official ceremonial groundbreaking for the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium, literal groundbreaking on the site will finally happen Monday.

Real team owner Dave Checketts toured the location of the future $110 million Major League Soccer stadium Thursday with officials of Layton Turner Construction, which is building the stadium on the northwest corner of 9400 S. State. It's slated to open in August 2008, with a game against Real Madrid.

"Why I came down here instead of downtown (Salt Lake) — this was a blank canvas," Checketts said, standing on what will soon be the north corner of the field.

"What I'd like to do is create an international square of sorts," he added, speaking of what Real and Sandy hope will be a 136-acre mega-development of that entire block, with outdoor dining and shopping. Checketts envisions the look of a European market.

Checketts also revealed that beer will be sold in the stadium; that a big-time developer is partnering with Real to develop the "superblock"; and that the hockey team St. Louis Blues, which he owns, could play exhibition games on the field if it is turned into an ice rink during the winter off-season.

Since a much-publicized groundbreaking in August with soccer superstar David Beckham, no actual construction has been done on the site outside of brush clearing and site staking.

Negotiations to give the team millions in public funds hit roadblocks throughout 2006. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon denied a funding plan for the stadium three times, once in May, again in July and for a final time this January. He deemed it a risky investment of the county's hotel-tax dollars.

But in February, the Legislature approved a last-minute funding package for the stadium, forcing $35 million of the county's hotel-room tax revenue to go toward land and parking at the site.

Those never-ending negotiations also forced Real's first investor, Goldman Sachs, to pull out of the project last month. Real, however, quickly secured iStar Financial as a new investor.

That land cost Real $20 million to $22 million for two pieces: private property from resident Bonnie Miller and the Ardell Brown RV park (per terms of the RV park sale contract, Brown gets to kick the first ball at the opening Real Madrid game).

Under terms of the deal with the state, Real will sell that stadium site for the same price they bought it for to the state. The state will own the land the actual stadium, parking and additional roads will sit on.