Utahns say no in poll to aid for Real

Residents statewide do not approve of the Legislature's plan to direct public money to a stadium for Real Salt Lake, according to a poll conducted Wednesday.

Despite residents' reluctance to get into the stadium business, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. believes the poll numbers will change 20 years in the future, after Utahns "recognize the positive effect that professional soccer will have in our state," a spokesman for the governor said.

"This proposal is about more than just the state purchasing a piece of land," the governor's spokesman, Mike Mower, said late Wednesday. "It also involves long-term economic-development and quality-of-life issues that will positively impact our state for generations."

The Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows 54.5 percent of residents statewide believe the Legislature should not give the soccer team $35 million in hotel-room tax revenue. The Dan Jones & Associates poll of 204 voters statewide has a margin of error of 7.5 percent.

The House is expected to consider a bill today that would set aside $35 million of Salt Lake County's hotel-room tax revenue to build a parking garage and purchase land for the stadium project. The bill, HB38, was passed Tuesday by the Senate.

Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan told the Deseret Morning News that if the bill is approved in the House, Real Salt Lake owner Checketts has promised the team will stay in the state.

Huntsman must also endorse the plan and is expected to sign the bill by Friday. Checketts, meanwhile, is considering an offer from investors in St. Louis, and they have given the team until 5 p.m. Friday to accept or reject an offer to move the team there.

The governor stepped into the stadium debate last week after Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon rejected a plan to give $30 million in hotel-tax revenues to help construct a stadium in Sandy.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said the governor's involvement has been crucial. "It appears to me that when the governor contacted (team owner Dave) Checketts and said, 'I want to have a chance to save soccer,' that was the turning point," Valentine said.

Both Huntsman and the Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, said the $35 million is not coming out of Utahns' pockets but from tourists staying in Salt Lake County hotels.

Even so, the majority of those polled said they do not want hotel-room taxes to be used to build a parking garage or to purchase land for the stadium project.

Mower said that although the public might not see it now, "this decision is one that will have a lasting impact for 10 or 20 years, especially for the hundreds of thousands of Utah youth that play and love the game of soccer."