KSL Newsradio: Soccer stadium deal is dead

KSL Newsradio this morning is reporting that plans to build a soccer stadium in Salt Lake County are dead.

KSL's Doug Wright spoke with Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts this morning. Checketts says based on a phone conversation he had with Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, Real Salt Lake soccer is done. Checketts says the team will likely stay in Utah for one more year, then it will probably be sold.

Corroon confirmed to the Deseret Morning News Monday morning that Checketts told him the team will be sold; and Checketts may even have a buyer by Friday.

"The project, Corroon said of the stadium deal, "does not demonstrate it is financially viable."

"It was tough thinking of the positives and negatives. I am a soccer supporter. If anybody wanted this to work, it was me," Corroon said. "Bottom line, it didn't make sense."

On Friday, the Salt Lake County Debt Review Committee voted unanimously that giving $30 million in hotel-tax revenue to help finance the $110 million soccer stadium in Sandy is a risky investment.

At the time, Corroon said he would decide early this week whether to recommend that the Salt Lake County Council commit public funding for the stadium.