Keep your eyes on the ball

No one can say Dave Checketts doesn't have a flair for the dramatic.

Last summer, as he and Salt Lake County were trying to make an agreement in principle as to whether Real Salt Lake should get help from county taxpayers to build a stadium, Checketts brought international superstar David Beckham to town. Say the word, and Beckham himself would turn a shovel of dirt at a ceremony.

And this week, just as the team finally agreed under pressure to release its financial plan to the county and the public, it announced a blockbuster trade bringing Freddy Adu, the nation's most talked-about soccer player, to town.

All the flash and glitz can make it hard to concentrate on what really matters here — things that come into high relief once the lights fade.

The team's financial plan includes a lot of optimistic assumptions. But to be fair, a lot of businesses have plans with rosy assumptions, and not all of them have a commitment from an investor as substantial as Goldman Sachs, which will become half owner of the team.

The real question here is much more fundamental. It has to do with whether it is proper to use taxpayer funds to help a private business achieve its goals. At least Salt Lake County is showing it won't just give public money away on a whim, and at least its leaders are requiring the county's portion to go for real assets, such as land.

Our advice for the county is to keep its eyes on what matters here.

Not long after Beckham and his Real Madrid teammates — who sold out Rice-Eccles Stadium for an exhibition game — left town, it became clear that the team and the county really didn't have a deal at all. And when the Adu trade is examined closely, it isn't all it appears to be, either.

Adu turns 18 on June 2, making him eligible to play overseas, where soccer is a huge sport. He already has trained with Manchester United and may well leave Salt Lake City for greener pastures after one season, which means he might not ever play in the proposed new stadium.

Dramatics aside, the county is being asked to invest in a private business that provides little real economic benefit to the community. If it agrees to go along, it had better have darned good reasons.