Corroon OKs a Real deal

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon on Thursday knocked down his final roadblock against a soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake.

The mayor signed a stripped-down interlocal agreement with the state that says the county will collect hotel-tax revenue for the next 20 years and give a portion to the state to fund the team's future Sandy stadium.

The agreement is one of the loose ends the state is trying to tie up on a $35 million deal that the Utah Legislature approved in February for land and infrastructure for a soccer stadium in Sandy.

The Salt Lake County Council is scheduled to vote on the agreement Tuesday.

Noticeably absent from the agreement is Sandy city. The south valley suburb had tried to get Corroon to sign an interlocal agreement earlier this month, but Corroon flatly refused.

He said the language of the document was too vague and left open the possibility that the county's hotel-room tax (TRT) dollars could be used for a hotel, broadcast studio or other Real projects on stadium property.

"We didn't want to be agreeing to things we already said no to," Corroon said Thursday.

Sandy officials yanked that agreement off their agenda a few weeks ago and left the negotiations with Corroon up to the state.

Corroon had all but killed the stadium deal in January, saying it was an "unsafe investment" of taxpayer dollars, since the team could easily default on bills with only minor shortfalls in ticket sales.

Weeks later, the state had come to the rescue using the county's $35 million in hotel-room tax revenue.

Now, the new agreement with the state doesn't say a word about the details of how the money can be spent. The agreement sticks to the basic premise that the county will continue to charge a 4.25 percent tax on hotel rooms for at least 20 years. The state will then take 15 percent of that revenue for 20 years to raise $35 million for the stadium project.

Corroon's cooperation — or lack thereof — won't derail the stadium project, Sandy Economic Development Director Randy Sant said in an earlier interview with the Deseret Morning News. Corroon's cooperation would be nice, however, as Sandy would not have to pay additional bond insurance and would not need as much bond coverage, Sant said.

Sandy officials are also working on the details of a development agreement with Real that will include the terms and conditions the team must meet in order to receive an additional $10 million in public funding from Sandy's Redevelopment Agency.

Real began construction on April 9 of a $110 million soccer stadium on the northwest corner of 9400 South and State Street in Sandy. The team hopes to finish the stadium by August 2008.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com