Game over? County, Real insist $30M deal is viable

Bring out your dead: That's what House Speaker Greg Curtis has been saying about public funding for a Real Salt Lake soccer stadium.

County and team leaders, however, said Tuesday that the deal is not dead yet.

Despite Curtis' warning of impending doom, Salt Lake County and Real Salt Lake leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a $30 million deal to help construct a permanent home in Sandy for the soccer team.

The move came days after the Deseret Morning News first reported that Curtis, R-Sandy, had given up on the possibility that the team and county could come to an agreement and finally start construction.

"This deal isn't going to happen," Curtis said Tuesday. "My opinion hasn't changed."

Curtis even filed a bill Friday that would take away the county's option to give hotel taxes to the team to build the stadium.

Despite all that, Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts is undeterred.

"This is a political battle I don't have a part in," Checketts said Tuesday. "I prefer to believe there is good will all around. We expect to have this done within a matter of days."

Curtis isn't the first to say the stadium deal is dead. Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan made the same prediction in July, after the Salt Lake County Council rejected the city's funding plan to build a stadium.

A month after Dolan's statement, team and county leaders laid the groundwork for the very deal under negotiation now. The team is asking for $30 million in hotel-tax revenue from the county and $15 million in redevelopment-agency dollars from Sandy.

Darrin Casper, the county's chief financial officer, said nothing has changed since August. County leaders are still performing their "due diligence" on Real's business model, and once that's complete, a decision will be made by the County Council.

"We haven't stopped progress or stopped working on this deal," Casper said. "In fact, we're very much plowing forth with it. It's a good deal for the county citizens, but it's dependent on Real's viability."

That's not enough for Curtis.

He said he doesn't understand how Checketts can be so optimistic that the deal will go through. Curtis said a past full of broken promises does not bode well for Real's future.

"I don't see what's changed," Curtis said. "What gives him the comfort that it's going to happen? That's what I don't see."

Final negotiations on the deal are expected to conclude before the legislative session wraps up. If the negotiations fail, Curtis has a bill ready that would take the county's power to spend the hotel-room taxes on the stadium and redirect the money to fund a TRAX line to the Salt Lake City International Airport or an expansion at the Hogle Zoo.