From Deseret News archives:
City mulling short list of potential MLS sites
Mayor says he's confident in efforts to get a stadium
Still, Mayor Rocky Anderson said Monday, the city is not lagging behind in its efforts to acquire a site where Utah's new MLS team, Real Salt Lake, can build a soccer-specific stadium.
Anderson said he is confident the city is doing all it can to secure the stadium and is working closely with officials of SportsWest, which owns the rights to the team.
"I'm very pleased," Anderson said. "We have some great sites under consideration."
The mayor noted it is more difficult to put together a deal in Salt Lake City because large existing portions of land are owned by several different property owners and few big chunks of undeveloped land are left, especially in the downtown area where SportsWest would like to locate.
Anderson's senior advisor for economic development, Alison McFarlane, told the Mayor's Records Appeals Board on Oct. 15 that they would make public a short list of potential soccer stadium sites in "two or three weeks." It has been 24 days since the hearing and city officials still refuse to release any details about potential sites.
Deputy City Attorney Lynn Pace wrote in a letter to the Deseret Morning News received Monday that the potential sites all have multiple property owners and "on none of those potential sites has the city made contact with all of the current property owners."
At the hearing, Pace argued the city shouldn't have to disclose the sites under consideration to the Deseret Morning News, which had asked the board to release certain documents including a map that detailed a dozen or so sites the city was considering for the stadium.
SportsWest has said it will make a decision on where to locate the new team by this December.
Murray City has made a big push to have the stadium built on a 100-acre site just east of I-15 near 4500 South. The site has convenient access to the freeway and TRAX light rail. The city is considering other financial incentives as well. SportsWest managers have said they are interested in the Murray proposal, which was presented to SportsWest nearly three months ago.
Until a soccer-specific stadium can be built, Real Salt Lake will play in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Soccer advocates and SportsWest officials say the 45,000-seat stadium is too large.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com
