2004

• July — Major League Soccer announces plans to bring a team to Salt Lake City.

2005

• January — Salt Lake City leaders say they are willing to purchase land for a downtown soccer stadium and consider using public money from the city's redevelopment agency (RDA) for the project.

• April — Real Salt Lake kicks off its first season in the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium.

• May — The city of Sandy bids on the soccer stadium with the promise of sharing a $20 million parking garage between the soccer stadium and the South Towne Exposition Center. Salt Lake City pitches the Utah State Fairpark as an alternative location.

• October — Real Salt Lake releases plans for a "Real City" in Sandy. The project includes a 20,000-seat stadium, a hotel and a broadcast studio.

2006

• March — The Utah Legislature passes two separate bills allowing public dollars to be spent on development of a soccer stadium.

• May — Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon denies Real's funding plan, which called for $35 million from the county in hotel-room tax dollars.

• June — Sandy pitches a revamped funding proposal to the county that, including debt service, would require $71 million in county hotel taxes and $25 million from a Sandy RDA.

• July 11 — The County Council rejects Sandy's funding plan. Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan says a soccer stadium is dead in Sandy.

• Aug. 11 — Corroon resurrects the stadium idea and pitches a funding plan that would direct $40 million in hotel taxes to the stadium, with Sandy chipping in $15 million in RDA dollars.

• Aug. 12 — International soccer superstar David Beckham and his teammates from Real Madrid turn golden shovels of dirt at the stadium's official ground-breaking.

• Oct. 3 — Salt Lake County leaders hire an independent consultant to review the team's finances before signing a deal for public funding.

2007

• Jan. 5 — Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, says the stadium deal is dead and files a bill to redirect hotel-room taxes from the stadium to other projects.

• Jan. 19 — A review by an independent financial consultant concludes that even in the best of circumstances, Real won't be able to pay the bills.

• Jan. 26 — The county's Debt Review Committee says the team is not financially viable.

• Jan. 29 — Corroon decides that giving $30 million to the team is an "unsafe investment" and stops all negotiations with the team. With that decision, team owner Dave Checketts says he is "weighing his options" — which include selling the team. Real will play one more year at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Checketts says.