Real deal isn't ready yet

Real Salt Lake says it's met all the county requirements for public funding of a state-of-the-art soccer stadium, but Salt Lake County officials aren't ready to rubber-stamp anything just yet.

A day after the hotel tax bill passed the House, Real Salt Lake released a funding proposal that outlines pouring roughly $45 million of public money into the stadium.

However, Salt Lake County officials say they were thrown for a loop by the "premature" release of funding details.

"This is an extremely complex deal that involves a soccer franchise," said Darrin Casper, the county's chief financial officer. "This is something you don't do in a couple of weeks. We haven't rejected them, we still have a lot of work left to do. But why they had a press release saying they've met the mayor's criteria baffles me."

Real Salt Lake plans to break ground on the 22-acre soccer stadium in Sandy this fall but has said the stadium can only be built through a private-public partnership. The $145 million project includes a broadcast studio and hotel, and officials are asking for public dollars to go toward infrastructure, such as repairing roads and adding a sewer line.

If HB371 passes, the county has been told by the Legislature that the majority of its share of hotel tax dollars must go to the stadium project. The bill, sponsored by Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, would allow all counties in the state to levy a 1.25 percent tax on hotel accommodations for tourism projects.

"There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that we are not getting this tax authorization unless soccer is a part of it," Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch said. "There is no way I and almost anybody else would take advantage of this tax and spend it in a way contrary to the Legislature's intent. That would be absolutely the worst, and we would never do that."

Under Real's stadium funding proposal, a 20-year bond would be created with Salt Lake County to split hotel taxes over the period from 2016-23. The first 10 years of the county's hotel tax dollars are already committed to expanding the Salt Palace and adding a parking garage to the South Towne Expo Center, money lawmakers approved only for that restricted use last year.

Real's plan does not pigeonhole all of the county's hotel tax money for the stadium. For the first seven years of the bond, 65 percent of the county's hotel tax dollars would go to stadium infrastructure while the county could use 35 percent for other tourism projects. And for the last 10 years of the project, the stadium and county would split hotel tax funds 50/50.