Guv likes Sandy as stadium location

(by Kersten Swinyard and Leigh Dethman desnews.com 6-24-06)

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. solely supports a Real Salt Lake soccer stadium in Sandy, his spokesman said Friday.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson this week resurrected a proposal he first pitched last year to put the stadium on state-owned land at the Fairpark, but the idea isn't making much headway among other officials.

"We're not advocating any proposal and not encouraging any process other than that which is being considered next Tuesday," said Mike Mower, Huntsman's spokesman. "Our focus is on Real in Sandy."

Among other Sandy supporters is House Speaker Greg Curtis, a south-valley politician with a lot riding on his hometown's proposed stadium spot. Anderson doesn't seem to have many advocates on the Salt Lake County Council, either.

Anderson sent a letter Wednesday to Huntsman, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Real owner Dave Checketts asking them to reconsider the Fairpark as a site with "tremendous benefits to all." The capital city's mayor proposed using a share of county hotel-tax money, along with city property and sales taxes, to help the team build on the state-owned land.

But the team has already paid $12 million for 20 acres for a stadium in Sandy and has repeatedly said it is committed to the site.

"How can we make it more clear that we are committed to Sandy?" team spokesman Tom Love said Friday. "We have bought land, we have built plans, we have done engineering drawings. We have done everything for this stadium to be in that pristine location in Salt Lake County and Sandy."

County leaders last month turned down a plan from Real to bond for $35 million in hotel-tax money, because debt service on the bond meant the county eventually would have wound up paying $87.5 million over the life of the loan.

Now, Sandy leaders are preparing an alternate proposal that could draw on some of the hotel-tax money, as well as city and county property taxes. Sandy is scheduled to present its plan to the county Tuesday.

Mower and Huntsman's chief of staff, Neil Ashdown, reviewed that plan Friday with Curtis and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan. Curtis, who called the Sandy pitch "our proposal," said Anderson is interfering where he ought not to.

"It seems to me that Rocky is trying to say, 'I want to muddy the waters in regards to Sandy city's presentation,'" Curtis said. "I don't understand Rocky's methodology."

Anderson's spokesman, Patrick Thronson, did not respond to phone and e-mail inquiries from the Deseret Morning News on Friday.

Salt Lake City Council Chairman Dave Buhler said he hopes Anderson's proposal gets a fair shake, regardless of politics.

"If people don't want to consider it now, I hope that if things don't work out with Sandy, that they would be willing to take a look at" the Fairpark, Buhler said. "I just think that it should get serious consideration."

But Curtis said Anderson's suggestion that the state sell or lease part of the Fairpark's 60 acres to the team is untenable. State government should not subsidize the stadium, whether it ends up in Sandy, the Fairpark or somewhere else, he said.

"I've maintained all along that the state isn't bringing money to this project," Curtis said. The Fairpark is "worth literally tens of millions of dollars of ground. If the state assets are involved, then they need to be involved at fair-market value."

Huntsman said Thursday that "whatever we do will be in close consultation with the Legislature."

In his letter earlier this week, Anderson proposed that an "independent, non-partisan community task force" study the Fairpark site. But Salt Lake County Council Chairman Cort Ashton wrote to the mayor on Friday that such a task force is not the right answer to solving stadium-funding woes. The proposed panel includes mayors, business leaders and former Utah Jazz player Thurl Bailey, but it's Real Salt Lake officials who should be key in the funding-selection process, Ashton said.

"To suggest that political bodies and independent panels are more qualified than private business owners to determine their future seems an inappropriate role of government to me," Ashton wrote.

The County Council should be focused on finding out if Sandy's new funding plan will work, Ashton said.

"I will encourage this council to evaluate the plan on its merits — and not cloud the debate with alternatives that may or may not exist," Ashton wrote.

Curtis said that he doesn't understand Anderson's timing or suggestion that the task force examine the Fairpark proposal at a meeting July 8.

"If Rocky has a proposal, I think he should probably go to the County Council," Curtis said. "When they get done meeting on the eighth of July, are they going to vote? Who are they going to go to after they vote? Why not go to the entities that have the ability to make those decisions and not this working group?"

County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake City Democrat, said she also is doubtful that Anderson and the Legislature would be a winning combination for the stadium.

"The mayor is doing what he can do to keep the team in his city, but there is just too much water under the bridge," she said. "It's going to be a long shot."