More than once, the event almost became the debate that never was. Throughout the negotiations for the debate, both Hannity and Anderson have accused each other of grandstanding, obstruction and dishonesty — all with a healthy dose of epithet-hurling and second-guessing by both sides.

Contract negotiations were finalized April 20, with both sides agreeing to KUED associate director Ken Verdoia as moderator. The contract spells out that the debaters must both "waive all speaking and appearance fees" and "pay for their travel and hotel and all incidental costs."

In October 2004, Hannity raised some criticism after charging Utah Valley State College $35,000 for private Hawker jet service to get him to the Orem school to speak as a "balance" to filmmaker Michael Moore's speaking on the campus. The charge came after Hannity had touted the fact that he was waiving his normal $100,000 speaking fee.

For tonight's debate, Kingsbury Hall has a capacity of more than 1,900. ASUU held 900 tickets for U. students for $5; the rest were sold to the general public for $20 each.

That means ticket sales brought in nearly $25,000, minus the debate's operating costs, to be split three ways among the Guadalupe Schools, Primary Children's Medical Center and a scholarship at the university.

Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairman James Evans said the party had a few tickets that it would give out to "loyal Republicans" at a dinner tonight before the local party convention on Saturday. Evans also said that Hannity is scheduled to stop by the Republican dinner tonight for a "pep rally."

Anyone who missed the chance to get tickets will be able to listen to the debate live on KSL's Nightside radio program and KUER FM90. KUER news director Jenny Brundin will host a pre-debate show featuring a guest author who has written about debates and rhetoric.

Fox-13 plans to air the debate live on TV, starting with a preview broadcast at 8 p.m. The live coverage will pre-empt Fox's 9 p.m. news broadcast, and it will be followed by wrap-up coverage.

The entire debate will be streamed live at myfoxutah.com and ksl.com. It will also be available on www.slctv.com beginning Tuesday.

Those who have tickets to the debate should park in the Rice-Eccles stadium parking lot, where a shuttle will be available to bring them to Kingsbury Hall.

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Contributing: Leigh Dethman.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com