Decision on soccer stadium may come soon

A deal to fund a Major League Soccer stadium in Sandy could be done in a matter of weeks.

Salt Lake County's Debt Review Committee is scheduled to meet three times within the next 10 days to determine if Real Salt Lake is a worthy business in which to invest public dollars. A decision from the committee could come as soon as Jan. 22.

Both Mayor Peter Corroon and the County Council have said the $30 million deal hinges on the committee's approval.

The committee is scheduled to either make a recommendation or give a status report to the County Council on Tuesday. County treasurer Larry Richardson, who serves as the Debt Review Committee's chairman, said a recommendation likely won't be ready by then, but that doesn't bar the council from making a decision.

"They might have enough information at that point to make up their minds," Richardson said. "They can make whatever decision they want, with or without our advice."

But councilman Marv Hendrickson said the council would not move forward on a stadium funding deal without the committee's stamp of approval.

"No way," Hendrickson said. "It wouldn't be in our best interest. Obviously, you can understand there are a lot of questions that have not yet been answered."

The three scheduled hearings are meant to answer a lot of those questions.

Tops on the list of most members of the committee is how Sandy will come up with the $15 million that the city promised for the $110 million stadium. Real Salt Lake is asking for $30 million in hotel-tax revenue from the county and $15 million in redevelopment-agency dollars from Sandy.

But Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan says those details will be worked out after the county finishes its independent review.

"We haven't even created the CDA (community-development area) yet," Dolan said. "We're still at the same position we've always been at — the money is based on the amount of development Real does on the project. It's dependent on the development itself."

The amount of money the Major League Soccer franchise puts into the project will determine the dollar figure of the CDA. A CDA is a new track of redevelopment-agency legislation that uses only the city's and county's cut of property taxes for a redevelopment project. So far, the $135 million price tag for the first phase of the development, which includes the stadium, a hotel and a broadcast studio, covers a $15 million CDA.

Under a CDA, other taxing entities can opt into the CDA. But Jordan School District officials have already made it clear that they do not want to forgo their cut of property tax dollars for the multimillion-dollar stadium. As for the rest of the taxing entities, most are small, such as the sewer and abatement district, and Dolan said he is sure they will opt in.