Comments about ‘UHSAA and Rio Tinto cannot come to agreement’

i was looking forward to playin there this spring.. wow

UVU is the BEST place for the baseball finals. That playground there allows us to take our whole family. My little girl went to baseball all day, and actually had fun. Please keep it there!

TYES!!!!!! UVU is more centralized and a great facility for baseball. Keep it baseball at UVU

UVU is the place the Rio Tinto was a waste of money they needed help from Utah and got it and in return they will cater to the outside to make there money instead of giving those who play soccer an oppurtunity to play on a nice field that live in Utah. Sounds like they need a better business plan to me Soccer players should respond by not going to any REAL games, and letting them know that this is very unacceptable!!

I believe taxpayers help foot this bill, correct me if I am wrong. I am amazed then that they will not accomodate Utah High Schools. There is something wrong with this picture.

WASATCH ACADEMY IS GONNA GET TO THE FINAL NO MATTER WHERE THEY PLAY!!!!!

You are right, there is something wrong with this picture. Taxpayers pay for the stadium and then can't use it? Why aren't our city representatives doing something about this? I have attended my last REAL game.

Bad Move UHSAA. 4A and 5A 1st round games are great at the Neutral Site. West might have not won the title if they had to play at Sky View the first game.

I agree that REAL really dropped the ball on this one but the UHSAA is also responsible for not getting the contracts signed within a reasonable time-frame. I bet if this were football or basketball, the contracts would have been signed years in advance.

I agree this is lame and bad pr for Real to do, but you didn't pay a cent of this unless you stayed at a hotel, so quit whining. And that money only went to the land and infrastructure, not for the stadium. Your constant complaining reminds me of my 4 year old niece.

I am going to go ahead and assume you have never been to a Real game because with unfounded statements like yours you are obviously not a fan. I feel like a broken record, the money used was a TRT tax. Everytime someone stays at a hotel about 5 cents goes into this tax, it is used for RECREATION and funding state tourism. Also this ammounted for less then 30% of stadium funding. So most of the funding game from the team and owner taking on debt. THEY NEED TO REPAY THAT DEBT! so, if the HS system wont sign a contract on time then the club needs to work on getting rid of the debt...

Why didn't UHSAA sign the contract? That is the question that you all SHOULD be asking. As Bill Manning is quoted in the story, "Our frustration is that this has been going on for months," why didn't poor Mr. Thompson act like a professional and get this done? This is not a story about the evil soccer stadium turning away high school kids; this is a story about UHSAA acting like amateurs. And then when Bill Manning tries to accommodate then and book them rent free UHSAA acts like children and turn them down. When UHSAA executive director Dave Wilkey says "We are way down the priority list" he is absolutely correct; maybe if UHSAA had tried to conduct business in a professional matter they would be taken seriously.

And again, the tax used to help fund the stadium was the Transient Room tax, which is a tax on hotel rooms. If you are not paying to stay in hotel rooms in Utah then your money was not "taken" to help build the stadium (which brings revenue to the state).

Great job Deseret News for spinning and sensationalizing yet another non-issue into "news"

The way I look at it the less games/concerts on the field the better it will look. Nothing looks worse than a big dead spot in the middle of the field!!! I want the field to look as nice as possible. STAY OFF THE GRASS!!! haha. RSL fan until I die!!!

I'm sure the Eagles concert and the USA Womens soccer game will return much more money to the community than a few state championship games that might fill one quarter of the stadium. Who is wasting taxpayers money then? Everyone needs to quit crying!

Re: Taxpayer and Who helped pay...
Ummm... taxpayers are going to be using the stadium on these conflicted dates. I guarantee more taxpayers will go to The Eagles concert than any high school game.
And "taxpayers" did not help pay for Rio Tinto Stadium, "hotel-stayers" did. "Ignorance is bliss" eh?
Using critical thinking and educating yourself before you open your mouth (or post anything online) can go a long way to curing stupidity in the world. You guys should try it.

It's hard to schedule years in advance when the field wasn't even built. Quit being jealous of football and basketball. Besides, a lot more money comes in from football and basketball. That's just the way it is.

My understanding was that it was taxpayers who pay a hotel tax. As I read the article, it looks like both sides could work together a little more effectively. It takes two to make an agreement work.

How many typically go to 4A and 5A finals? I'll tell you, its been at Juan Diego, and I would say maybe 5,000 at $3 per ticket?

Versus 20,000 for a WNT at $15 per ticket. Manning isnt an idiot. And we should be glad they are making these great decisions.

Also, the grass will be fine, book that stadium for everything that will make money, we want RSL in the black ASAP.

The UHSAA are the ones that dropped the ball on this - not RSL. They had plenty of time to sign the contract, but dragged their feet over parking. A better opportunity came along for RSL from a business/financial point of view, and they took it. Maybe UHSAA will learn their lesson from this and sign contracts earlier. They should be the ones with the black eye - not RSL.

To poster at 10:56,

You completely missed the point buddy. It's not a dis on football or basketball (I love both sports and have coached both in the past), it's a dis on UHSAA. What are these guys getting paid for if they can't plan and secure venues to host the athletes who work their hearts out all season?