Then came the Grizzlies and the E Center. The arena wouldn't have happened at all except for the Winter Olympics and the need for a good hockey venue. City officials and team owners saw an opportunity and worked out a deal that was too ambitious from the start, and it came with plenty of hyperventilating about starry-eyed claims of good things to come. All the team had to do was average about 7,500 fans per game to break even, officials said. That never happened. After a few years, the team had to leave the IHL and settle in an even more minor league, the ECHL.

In 1996 I wrote a column in which I suggested that, since the city and the hockey arena inevitably were going to marry, residents ought to get a prenuptial agreement to guide them. The announced construction price was $54.2 million, but I urged people not to buy the claim that the city wouldn't raise taxes for that. It is, I said, like telling your spouse you haven't gotten a raise but you just made a major purchase.

Part of the city's general fund goes to help pay off the debt on the arena. Lease arrangements with the team were supposed to help, too. But if the current deal goes through, the city would buy out the team's debt, further obligating taxpayers. Maybe the city won't raise taxes, but it will have to spend money that could be used elsewhere.

You don't have to be a business major to understand that professional hockey is a losing venture in Utah. Previous owners knew that. Larry Miller had the good sense to let it go. But West Valley City has gotten itself tangled in this marriage and it can't let go. That's not a good deal for West Valley taxpayers.

Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News edito?rial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com. Visit his blog at www.deseretnews.com/blogs.