He said the taxpayer funds involved in the project — $35 million collected from transient room taxes paid in Salt Lake County — are coming from people staying in hotels and will be used to pay for land and parking. The project is much larger than that for the private investors, Huntsman said.

"The state's involvement in this has always been limited to securing the land where the privately funded stadium will be built, as well as the construction of a parking facility that will also greatly benefit visitors to the South Towne Expo Center," Huntsman's spokesman, Mike Mower, said after the announcement.

Meanwhile, a Salt Lake resident is wrapping up his statewide tour to collect signatures for a referendum that would allow voters to decide whether public money should be spent on the project. Brad Swedlund, 50, filed the request earlier this month and has been visiting various counties to find registered voters who will sign the petition.

State law requires Swedlund to collect nearly 92,000 signatures of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election. Those signatures must be collected from at least 15 of Utah's 29 counties by April 9. Swedlund reported on his Web site, www.getrealutah.org, this week that 35,000 signatures have already been collected.

Meanwhile, Sandy's planning commission Thursday night voted unanimously for a code amendment that, if passed by the City Council next Tuesday, allows for off-site parking at temporary events, such as Real soccer games. Per the state's $35 million funding package, $20 million must be used for 1,000 new parking stalls within a five- to 15-minute walking radius of the stadium.

Sandy's commission voted last week to hold off on issuing $10 million from Sandy's Redevelopment Agency for Real until the parking plan meets its conditions set forth by the commission.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com