Rocky toiling to land theater-soccer deal

Sound familiar?

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is floating a plan to spend hotel-room tax money on a downtown theater district as well as a soccer stadium in Sandy. Anderson invited Real Salt Lake team owner Dave Checketts, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and a handful of other county leaders to his office Thursday to figure out what the team can do to win the county's approval for funding.

The pitch was similar to one Anderson fought a month ago, with one key difference: Salt Lake City receives a bigger chunk of the money. That leaves Salt Lake County leaders asking how they'll pay for the balance of stadium costs.

Anderson's plan outlines "suggested terms" for Salt Lake County's participation, which include $40 million in hotel-room tax dollars, and $12 million from Sandy redevelopment-agency funds, according to documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News.

If that plan doesn't meet the county's checklist, Real is working on another contingency plan that would avoid using county money altogether, Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan said.

"It's being looked at seriously by Dave Checketts and his group," Dolan said.

But the redevelopment agency (RDA) dollars Sandy would front, which are based on the assessed property value of the stadium project, is the only money Sandy would contribute. That amount in previous proposals has been $10 million. Those funds would come through a community-development area (CDA), which is a form of new RDA legislation that allows the city's and county's cut of property taxes to flow toward project infrastructure costs.

The rest of the roughly $180 million for the stadium and an adjoining hotel and broadcast studio would be funded privately through Real's investors.

Anderson's plan asks the county to funnel $10 million more hotel-room taxes than the last plan rejected by the County Council — a total of $40 million.

"Rocky's proposal is not going to go anywhere," County Councilman Joe Hatch said. "No, that's too expensive."

The plan resembles the Sandy proposal that county officials denied a month ago. That July proposal would have shifted $30 million in hotel-tax dollars to Sandy to cover infrastructure costs for the soccer stadium, and the city would have pitched in $10 million in CDA money.

If approved, the proposal would also have provided $45 million for projects in downtown Salt Lake City and $15 million for other countywide projects. Anderson publicly blasted that plan to the County Council shortly before county leaders voted it down.