RSL finally delivers — but what?

Congratulations to Real Salt Lake, which finally delivered its — ta-dum! — now-you'll-see-'em, no-you-won't, oh!-here-they-are financial records to Salt Lake County and the public on Monday.

It took only 7 1/2 months of asking.

Real officials say they were going to make the records public all along. "We make this release to demonstrate that we have absolutely nothing to hide from officials charged with protecting the taxpayers' best interests," Real CEO Dean Howes wrote in a letter to County Mayor Peter Corroon.

Pardon our cynicism, but the county has been trying to get those records since April as a condition for giving the soccer team $40 million of the $55 million they've begged from taxpayers. The team openly resisted and then threatened lawsuits when information from their financial records was leaked to the media.

That sounds like they had something to hide.

Seven months to deliver 50 pages? Maybe Real officials walked the records over to the county. Or their car broke down. Or they had to be translated from Sanskrit.

Things got a little tense, meanwhile. One county official complained last week that he was the victim of "trash talking" by Real officials while he was (drumming his fingers) waiting for the financial records. Name-calling has been part of negotiations between RSL and the county from the start. The highlights: RSL owner Dave Checketts calling the council "bush league" and Councilman Joe Hatch calling the team "a bunch of chowderheads." Maybe they'll settle it on the playground at recess.

Hasn't everybody had enough of this whole business almost since the day the team dropped into town like a 900-pound gorilla? Nobody's worn out his welcome this bad since Bob Saget.

The stadium-loan business has dragged on for 2 1/2 years. This thing has had more technical difficulties than the space shuttle. It's like doing the Winter Olympics all over again. Where are Tom and Dave? Maybe it's their fault.

After months of acrimonious negotiations and threats, team officials and politicians held a hasty groundbreaking ceremony for the stadium in August, before anyone changed his mind and while superstar David Beckham and Real Madrid were in town. Then last week we learned that — sheesshhhh — these guys still hadn't shown the county their financial records and the deal might fall through.

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL INFORMATION BEFORE THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY.

They did the whole thing backward. Remember, first the financial records, then the loan, then the groundbreaking, not the other way around.