Dolan's relationship with the Legislature contrasts with the sometimes contentious interaction between the Legislature and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson. Lawmakers took offense earlier this year when Anderson suggested that commuters to Salt Lake City were unwelcome because they increase air pollution. Salt Lake City has also had difficulty advancing its legislative agenda, and it had to wait until a special legislative session in April for money to expand the Salt Palace Convention Center because lawmakers couldn't agree during their regular session on funding for the renovation.

Anderson's spokesman, Duncan Moench, did not return a phone call seeking comment on the stadium decision.

"The Legislature obviously wants to work with people who want to work with them," Dolan said. "It's recognized that Sandy City can make some things happen at the legislative level and the county level, and we pitched that again as one of the things that would be helpful it they wanted to locate in Sandy."

House Speaker Greg Curtis, who lives in Sandy, said, "Local elected officials are much more inclined to work for things in their communities."

Checketts said he primarily chose Sandy for its large chunk of undeveloped land: "I did not believe that I could get this done in downtown (Salt Lake) the way I wanted it to be done."

Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr.; Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem; Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo; Curtis; Corroon; and Dolan were seated on the stage during the announcement with Checketts, Real CEO Dean Howes and Major League Soccer COO Mark Abbott. Behind them, team banners and nearly life-size photos of players and crowds at Rice-Eccles stadium, where Real plays now, bent in the breeze. Also attending were about 100 onlookers who cheered at any mention of players, victories or future facilities.

The stadium's exact price has yet to be worked out, Checketts said. But government representatives on hand Wednesday will be instrumental in rearranging roads for entrances and exits to the stadium, running sewer, power and water lines to the site and securing the public side of financing.

The time frame at this point calls for financing to be in place by early next year, ground broken in the spring and games starting July 4, 2007.

One source for the public money is a sports enterprise zone, possibly modeled after a similar zone in Phoenix for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The zone could work by setting up a special retail district where a portion of the sales taxes collected there could go toward team coffers or a bond on the stadium.

The Utah Taxpayers Association believes the project is not going to generate any new money for the state and believes the team should be responsible for finding private investors.

"People are not going to spend more money because there's a soccer stadium in Utah," association vice president Mike Jerman said. Additionally, "subsidizing soccer franchises is not going to create high-wage jobs."

Dolan, however, said that Sandy might get the College Sports Network, another of Checketts' projects. The network, which is contracting with the Mountain West conference to broadcast college games, would relocate from Denver to Utah, along with 100 to 150 or so jobs — "high-paying jobs to hire people locally," Dolan said.

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com