Despite politics surrounding funding plans for a Real Salt Lake soccer stadium, tonight's game against international favorite Real Madrid is expected to bring major bucks to Salt Lake City.

Tickets are sold out for the 7:30 p.m. XanGo Cup game, and team officials estimate the event will bring at least $15 million into Utah's economy.

"It's just one game, one event — and for a single event, it's very impressive," said Jim Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah. "When people come here and stay a couple nights for a game, they bring those outside dollars, which is great. The key factor is how much they spend."

Fans from all over the world have bought tickets for the exhibition game, including visitors from 27 states and 14 countries. The 40,000-plus game tickets sold for an average of $60 each.

Last year's World Cup qualifier between USA and Costa Rica, hosted by Real Salt Lake, was the largest international sporting event hosted in Utah, outside of the 2002 Winter Olympics. With over 40,500 people in attendance, research by the U. showed the out-of-state and out-of-country visitors alone brought a $12.7 million boost to the economy.

That's on top of the around-the-world media coverage Utah received for hosting the match — coverage that is expected to be just as wide-ranging for the Real Madrid game.

"This is big," said Scott Beck, chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Anything you can do promoting our brand, that name Salt Lake City, is very important."

The Real Madrid game also coincides with the Outdoor Retailers exhibition, which brings 20,000 people to the city. Add the out-of-state soccer fans and that puts Salt Lake County's 17,000 hotel rooms in a tight squeeze.

Salt Lake City hotels are sold out, Beck said, so soccer fans have been booking hotels in Davis and Summit counties. The Convention and Visitors Bureau even teamed up with Cottonwood Canyon resorts Snowbird and Solitude to put together packages for gamegoers.

"The city really has an Olympic-esque feel to it now," Beck said. "Forty-four countries are represented at the Outdoor Retailers show, you've got an international sporting event, and it's really fun because in downtown Salt Lake, you've got the mix of the soccer crowd and the outdoor crowd this year. ... It has this bizarre Olympic feel."

For tourism promotion in the Beehive State, those crowds and exposure are gold. Through years of studies, Beck said, 20 percent of visitors to the state will vacation in Utah again. "That's a great bounce-back."

The U.'s Wood, who did the 2005 economic study on the World Cup Qualifier and plans to do an economic-impact study on the Real Madrid game, said while the money this game will bring to the state may not change the growth path of the local economy, it will show Utah's leaders that a soccer league can bring extra visitors to the state.

"It's significant," he said.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com