Comments about ‘Salt Lake City Council backs soccer complex near Jordan River’

This was a great decision on many levels. Thank you JT Martin for your strong leadership and to the council for making the right decision.

Absolutely!!!

Here comes the inevitable legal action by the never-compromising environmental lobby. Just watch, it'll be a decade before this is built, just like the Legacy Highway.

This has been a long time coming. It's about time we have a first rate place for kids to play! Thanks RSL for making it happen.

Messrs. Reineke, Spatafore and Burke and to both Mayors Anderson and Becker, the Council and especially Rick Graham. Your persistent dedication to this project is what made this a reality. Mr. Reineke, your legacy is your wonderful family but this is a wonderful gift of self and your passion that you have given. Many thanks.

Well, the soccer community also got West Jordan to spend a lot of money on their soccer fields, promising it would provide an economic engine. And, after numerous costs overruns and scandals, the soccer fields were completed but still were not good enough for the Youth Soccer Association. So they refuse to sanction the fields for tournament play and have left West Jordan with a big budget hole each year. What makes anyone think the soccer assoc won't do the same to Salt Lake City.

The proposed Salt Lake Jordan River site is already way over budget and a only a shadow of what voters approved. We are getting less than half the number of fields we voted for in phase one. Phase two would require an additional $17 million subsidy from the county and provide only four more soccer fields. But phase two would also include a new road which is needed to provide access to the site which is otherwise in a rather obscure location.

The projected costs are much too high and Salt Lake City has used only one consultant. A review of the costs would be prudent.

Salt Lake County can't even take care of the soccer/baseball fields they already have in that area. Riverside Park is a dump and the fields are a joke.

I love how environmentalists are calling this area a wetland like its some utopian bird sanctuary. First of all its on the Jordan River a stone's throw from the water treament plant. The area is not used for anything except people flying model planes. I live less than a mile from there, its not a bird refuge, its an empty lot of dirt and weeds. I soccer complex is a great idea.

Are you kidding, in today's recession with so many unemployed and struggling, we have money to build a soccer complex. The articles states that many families involved in soccer are delighted, well then why didn't they pay for it.

As someone who grew up in Europe, every child played "football". We played in the streets, on any spare piece of ground, in backyards, even on flat rooftops, with no frills and we still produce the world's best players. $22.7 million is outrageous. Improve the exisiting soccer fields in Salt Lake instead of this waste of money.

YEAHHHH!!! GO SOCCER... Can't wait to see kids playing on these fields. Thank you Reineke, Spatafore, Burke and all others involved.

I have not seen any information about who is actually going to oversee/run this complex...Who is running it and who/how will there be oversight to ensure this tremendous public investment is managed appropriately?

Let's set the record straight. SLC never held any public meetings with Jordan River Parkway stakeholder groups to discuss the location for this boondoggle sports complex; the City’s plan was hatched behind closed doors. From the beginning, the public process has been unilateral. SLC never conducted a site comparison study, or conducted needs analyses to justify the project. The $22.8M Prop 5 Bond figure was simply pie-in-the-sky; the City admits such. The Bond was not site specific, nor was the Gift Agreement. After reading these documents it's obvious the Administration is spinning the facts. If anyone has betrayed the public it was Rocky Anderson and Ralph Becker, who claim to be so environmentally minded. The environmental community invested much time and energy to explore viable alternatives for the sports complex site. The soccer community never lifted a finger to address the environmental community’s needs. Just study the history of the West Jordan Soccer Complex; there's a sordid story with that site, which was touted as the largest tournament facility in the state, and a potential economic engine by the Utah Youth Soccer Association, the same people behind the SLC facility.

"The soccer community never lifted a finger to address the environmental community’s needs...."

That's because there aren't any environmental needs. The story you're feeding people through the media is made up. You've conveniently failed to mention the 160-acre riparian zone between the complex and the river. You've also conveniently failed to mention that if this land doesn't become a soccer complex, it will instead become a commercial development. I'm sure that would be much better for the birds, wouldn't it.

We will address your "needs" when you actually have some legitimate ones.

Dear Red Lion, if you had been at these meetings, or if you were at these meetings, you obviously didn't listen. The bond is site specific as is the gift from RSL. And, if you listened you would have heard why the West Jordan complex is a mess. The developer's did not use the proper grass for the fields or drainage system and they are so overused that they have become unusable because there is no time to rest them. I kept hearing the same arguments over and over at these meetings and the enviromental groups were not listening. The soccer community, city council, and mayor are all for a win-win situation, which the amendments were added for. If this property is not used it will go back to the state and then will be sold off to the highest bidder for development and then there will not be any land for the wildlife, unlike in this plan where they want to bring back native plants, etc. Red Lion, you are repeating the same things that were discussed and rectified in the meeting showing that the information you are touting is incorrect!

Who is running this complex? The City, County, State, another public sector group, private group, Utah Youth Soccer Organization? I have not seen or heard anything at all about this or who has/will receive these funds and oversee the building and management of this facility. I like and support soccer in our community very much and frankly think the fields are needed, but as a citizen, there should be broad based oversight and transparency just the same as with all other public dollars being spent. Are there any organizational documents showing people, where the funds are going now, interest income, audits, conflicts of interest? Will the people who have been involved in pushing this project forward stand to gain either financially or in any other way? Is there be a Board of Directors, open meetings policy, governance, oversight and general transparency? If there is, this type of information surely would be good to get out as it may give citizens some assurance or comfort

I agree with Jonas Brothers. This information is that is very important for the tax payers to know since they are footing the bill for what will end up being close to a $40 millom sports facility when all is said and done. There must be complete transparency and lack of response to these questions leaves you wondering...