Next move for Real? Team is looking at options as county denies stadium funds

Several local politicians are hunting for options to try to keep the team in Salt Lake County. County councilwoman Jenny Wilson on Tuesday pushed the idea of keeping Real at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium for a one-time cost of $2.5 million. The County Council voted against that idea.

Meanwhile, Anderson pleaded again Tuesday for the County Council to consider his plan to build the stadium at the Utah State Fairpark.

He wants the county to offer up $17.5 million in hotel-room taxes to build a stadium at the Utah State Fairpark. That money, along with property taxes from a community-development agency, would go toward improving facilities at the Fairpark. But in order to build there, the state must lease the land to the team for 50 years or sell it with the option of repurchasing the land.

Anderson told the City Council that "sending the signal that we're aligned on this — that we're going to do everything we can to keep this team in the city — is such an important statement.

"I know the team is very excited about pursuing the Fairpark proposal," he added.

However, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said Anderson's plan has no legislative support. Curtis has said for months that he would not support giving state money to a stadium.

"If I thought it was a state issue six months ago, I would have gone after state money," Curtis said. "I put my cards in the hand of the County Council and they said no, and I'm not going to change my opinion and say it's now a state issue."

Curtis said the only available option for the team to stay in Utah is for another city to hatch a plan.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Tuesday that he continues to "support the process leading to Sandy. That's where Checketts mentioned he wanted it to be, that's where the proposal formally sited the stadium."

Checketts, the governor said, "is taking a risk. He's bringing in added investment and development" but now has to decide what the market will bear. Huntsman said he wants to see the process "through to completion."

High stakes for Real

The team needs to find a home fast because its lease at Rice-Eccles Stadium is up at the end of the 2007 season. Without a soccer-specific stadium, no team can turn a profit, because it has to share revenue with the stadium owner, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday.

In the past five years, one MLS team folded and another relocated, partly because the teams could not secure a soccer-specific stadium. The Tampa Bay Mutiny folded in 2002 and the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston in 2005.

Garber said he is working with team officials to make sure that doesn't happen here in Utah.