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Progress on RSL stadium is kicking in

What a wonderful taxpayer investment. Just think, it works out to around 55 Million per win. Great job, Sandy.

wow, REALLY! they've won FOUR whole games now?????

Oh that makes it MUCH better it's only 27 1/2 MILLION per win.

Let it go, haters. It's being built.

Can't wait for opening day! It's gonna be great!

Looking forward to no ugly Utah football lines all over the field as well as a real soccer turf not like the garbage they've got up at Rice Eccles. Very exciting.

Thank goodness the state only had to invest $35 million of hotel taxes for this $110 Million dollar project. That means if you haven't stayed in a Utah hotel, you haven't paid for it! That is a lot less than the 55% that the RDA paid for the Delta Center, the 92% publicly built Franklin Quest Field from property a tax increase, and the 100% publicly funded E Center. That make Real's stadium the most Privately Funded Stadium in the state!

...to get the losing spirit out of Rice Eccles and having RSL play on a REAL pitch.
Soccer haters-SHUT IT!

If you are a die hard soccer fan, good for you but for someone that doesn't value professional sports of any kind, it is still a sore spot that any taxes should pay for any private enterprise whether it is Davey or Larry, mind you Larry has taken the most of taxpayers dollars and still does on his IDAHO farm. Took about pork barrel

Taxes? percentages? white lines and plastic turf? It's still just soccer. While prolific in other areas and other markets, it is and likely will always be a little league and club sport at best in Utah. Perhaps the bright side is that when this league folds, Sandy City may be able to recover by renovating it into a semi pro, or high school football facility. Suerte!

Looks like all five soccer supporters have weighed in!

Except for games that bring David Beckham, ML soccer is such a non issue for SLC.

I can't believe the people of Sandy stood for this.

Bor-ing!

huh? soccer is a non issue for salt lake? ya except for some of the highest youth and adult participation levels in the entire country. oh ya, and RSL is in the top 5 for attendance in MLS. ya, its a real non-issue.

RSL has been the worst team in MLS over the last 3 years and still manages to stay at the top level of MLS attendance, im sure glad soccer is a non issue in salt lake. just wait until they are playing in their own stadium, they'll surely become a figmant of our own imaginations and completly disappear from reality.

What a great investment? Business people did not want to take it in the shorts, so they convinced our legislature to put the taxpayers on the hook for what will amount to a colossal failure. What a brilliant plan.

Let's see...Utah Jazz lost $26 million in 2006, MLS lost $8 Million in 2006. MLS signed $100 Million with Adidas, multi-year-multi-$100 million deals with EPSN and Univision, and they have Beckham. Does Beckham help. 66,000 people attended LA at New York. Beckham's injured though? Blanco brought an extra 8,000 fans to RES. Sorry soccer haters, this stadium will be well used...for soccer.

I'm glad to see the world's nicest high school state football and soccer tournament venue is coming along nicely.

Real will be gone within the decade. Their organization is an absolute mess. Unfortunately, for taxpayers, Mr. Checketts is friends with too many state government cronies.

It must be hard to still be a soccer basher in this country, now that MLS soon will have every team in a soccer specific stadium, and that national TV contracts have been signed, and that attendance is on the rise, and there is more media coverage now than ever before...your losing battle is almost over. Give it up, and just let it be. Check out a game sometime, until you know what you are talking about give it a rest.

From Indy...

There a few people, sure. But 40% of each attending audience is there a give-away from sponsors or the league.

Kids watch scocer but when they get older, they convert to professional sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey). That is where the money is, therefore that is where the audience goes.

Don't get me wrong, i don't think we should publicly support those either, but at least there is drama associated with it. MLS has trying to shove soccer down the throats of Americans for 20 years and it hasn't picked up.

Stats show that while soccer-playing kids stay active as adults, their childhood love of soccer does not translate as a spectator.

bor-ing!

In the future, this stadium will be a monument to stupid decisions by some people to push this debacle through and it will be home to an actual 4,000 (or fewer) ticket-buying soccer fans accompanied by another 10,000 who got their tickets free through some means. (Heck, even with the price of "free" I would not waste my time watching RSL or any other soccer.) In 5 to 7 years from now, this stadium will turn out to be one of the dumbest financial decisions ever made by legislators and RSL.

Wow. The idiocy in this comment thread is unbelievable. If you don't want to watch soccer, that's fine. Since you are not paying for anything for this stadium, you are not losing anything. As a kid who watched other sports as well as soccer growing up, I converted to professional soccer exclusively; the NBA is a joke, the NFL is so over-hyped it is hard to watch, nobody cares about the NHL, and baseball is so boring to watch I would rather choke on razer blades than be forced to sit through a game. Soccer is the World's Game for a reason.
I can't wait for the stadium to be finished.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I think the only people who watch this stuff in Utah are RMs that served in Brazil. Wake me up during the world cup, the only time I would ever watch any soccer.

This is one of the biggest private investments ever in the state of utah. Out of $110 million, only $35 million of that is hotel tax dollars. Hotel tax dollars, not utah citizen tax dollars. If we can pay for the majority of Franklin Covey field with taxes (average attendance per game is probably 1500 people per game), for a triple A baseball team, than I have a hard time seeing us not build this soccer stadium (average attendance is like 16,000 people per game). For those who can't see the progression of the MLS, you have blinded yourself to the most popular sport in the world taking hold in the good old USA. This league is sitting on a great foundation and it is only going to get better. I expect sell out games at nearly 100% of the games at the new REAL stadium next year and in the future. I think it will be like other states NFL teams where if you haven't had season tickets for 20 years, then you aren't going to the game because it is sold out. (unless you buy from a scalper, of course) Oh, and did I mention, this venue won't only be used for soccer. It will be host to concerts, high school sports, etc. There will be money made outside of soccer. Very fine investment if you ask me.

I love how "they" designate funds for special projects, and then the rallying cry is that it isn't costing anything because its designated dollars.

the fact is every single dime this government spends, regardless how it is generated, that does not pay for itself is an EXPENSE.

Now, I don't mind that expense for common goals that I sign on for, in being part of a community. This would include roads, (public!) schools, police, fire, even community Arts.

Even programs like Headstart are proven to pay back more than the their expense. Bring those programs on.

But publicly funding private enterprise, with no hope of recouping the costs -- I am against the subsidies to Delta Center but you can argue that the economics have proven a net gain on the surrounding area -- is something NO GOVERNMENT should be involved in.

I thought the conservative, Republican governments were about LESS interference, fewer subsidies???

The fact that soccer is boring, watched only marginally by a handle of fans (hah! to the RM comment! you got that right!) is secondary to the argument. that just means its going to go down quicker.

I guarantee: soccer will not be here in ten years.