Checketts now eyeing Geneva site for his Real

(by Leigh Dethman desnews.com 7-21-06)

Dave Checketts isn't giving up yet.

The Real Salt Lake owner spent two hours in Utah County on Friday, surveying the nearly 30 acres of free land in Utah County that developers there have offered him.

Checketts said he wants to keep the team in Utah — and prospects for a permanent site in Salt Lake County are cloudy due to concerns about the need for public tax support.

"In 1984 I moved back to Utah to make sure the Jazz stayed in Utah, and I spent seven years getting them healthy and finding the right solution for their arena problems, and I'm approaching this with the same kind of passion," Checketts said in an interview with the Deseret Morning News. "This is the only place I'm going to own this team."

Michael Hutchings thinks the offer of land at the old Geneva site is one Checketts can't refuse.

"How can he say no to this?" said Hutchings, co-owner of Anderson Geneva, an affiliate of Sandy-based Anderson Development LLC. "We've made an almost irresistible offer."

The public seems to agree, according to a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll of 522 Salt Lake and Utah County residents. Fifty-seven percent of them said Real should build a stadium at the Geneva Steel site. The poll, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, has a margin of error of 4.3 percent when both counties are included.

Checketts must make a decision by Aug. 12, the drop-dead date he set to either pick a stadium site or sell the team.

One of his options is the Geneva site. The development firm Anderson Geneva is trying to lure Checketts to move the team down the road from Salt Lake County, with the promise of 30 acres of free land and a guarantee that Real won't have to ask for any tax money to build the stadium.

No tax dollars would be needed to build at the old steel plant in Vineyard, thanks to a redevelopment agency mechanism created in the 2006 legislative session. The RDA is not set up yet, but local officials told Hutchings it would be "easy" to create one and get the project started. A bill recently passed by the Legislature allows local municipalities to use RDA funds to revitalize inactive industrial sites.

West Jordan resident Heather Brown said she'll follow her team anywhere — be it Utah County or Phoenix. But most Salt Lake County residents don't want to have to make that choice, according to the Morning News/KSL-TV poll.

When asked if Real should move out of state or remain here, 63 percent said the team should stay. Of the 378 Salt Lake County residents polled, 12 percent said the team should pack its bags. The poll has a margin of error of 5 percent in Salt Lake County only.

Brown said she hopes it never gets to the point of the team leaving Utah entirely.

"There are sacrifices that have to go with having a major-league sports team in our state, and if they don't want to make the sacrifices, the team will have to go somewhere else," Brown said. "I just hope and pray that Dave (Checketts) doesn't get so disgusted with everything that he says, 'Fine, let's move.' "