Protect the city's interests

The amazing thing about the public-private partnership between Real Salt Lake and various Utah governments is how quickly everyone jumped aboard when there were opportunities for good publicity, and how quickly they hid when things got hot.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state lawmakers were all too happy to put their weight behind a deal to provide $35 million to help build a soccer stadium in Sandy. Real helped to secure that deal in part by promising to pay $7.5 million to help Salt Lake City build a complex of soccer and other ball fields near 2000 North and Redwood Road — a complex approved by voters in 2003.

But now that a fight has erupted between Real owner Dave Checketts and Salt Lake City over terms of that deal, the governor says he will stay out of it. Huntsman said he wants to make sure the $7.5 million remains part of the deal, but that he intends to stay out of the controversy over details of that commitment.

Frankly, Mayor Rocky Anderson was right when he told this newspaper the governor's office "can't stay out of it." The differences over what the deal means are important.

The city felt all along that the soccer team would donate $7.5 million. If the team helped acquire naming rights for the complex or handled concessions, the proceeds of that would go to back to the complex. Now, the team wants to profit from those things. The team is beginning to act as if its sole purpose was to do the city a favor, when early on it was clear that the soccer-complex investment was added as a good-will incentive to get the state and other governments to support a public subsidy for the stadium in Sandy.

Much has been made about how the projected costs for the complex have nearly doubled, and how the scope has diminished, since voters narrowly approved a bond for it. These factors are what made a contribution from Real so important.

But while those increases are indeed troubling, they are consistent with the recent experiences of other government projects. Salt Lake County, for instance, has seen an increase of nearly one-third in the cost of trails, rec centers and other improvements to county facilities approved by voters last November. Utah's economy is red hot, and unemployment is low. Inflation has taken hold of the construction industry.

But those realities are beside the point. As City Councilman Eric Jergensen said, allowing Real to use the city's soccer complex to make money would be to add an even larger public subsidy to the professional soccer team. It also might violate federal law, city attorneys say.

The governor and legislative leaders, who were so eager to get a stadium deal done earlier this year, need to step up in a public way and make sure the city's interests are protected.