Costs are rising for the planned Real Salt Lake soccer stadium, and now the state Legislature is stepping in with two specific bills — and possibly a third — aimed at offsetting the price of construction.
With the price tag now at $145 million, the Major League Soccer team wants the public to fund $45 million of the cost to build the Sandy stadium.
That public money could come from a hotel tax or what is known as a public-private partnership. Any public money would go toward infrastructure and land cost in a model similar to the one used to build the Delta Center — Salt Lake City leases the land the sports arena sits on.
"Doing it that way makes things cleaner so the county or city or some governmental agency would actually own the land. That would be prime real estate. But the stadium would be owned privately," said Josh Ewing, spokesman for Real Salt Lake (RSL). "Unlike what we were proposing before, we are not proposing that any of the public funding go towards stadium construction."
RSL plans to break ground on the state-of-the-art 20,000-seat stadium within the year. The "Real City" would also include a hotel and broadcast studio.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, would allow individual counties to levy a 1.25 percent hotel tax for tourism projects. The bill, HB371, has not been drafted yet, but should have its language completed by today, Clark said.
Previously, the hotel tax, or transient room tax, has applied only to Salt Lake County so it could collect funds for the Salt Palace expansion and South Towne Expo Center parking. The tax was restricted to the county and the specific projects.
"If it's good enough for the capital city, it's good enough for the rest of this state," Clark said. "I think it makes a lot of sense."
As a Washington County representative, Clark said he sponsored the bill to assist with the expansion of his county's Dixie Convention Center. But the bill could also benefit the Sandy soccer stadium and convention centers in other counties.
Another bill, SB257, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, could enable private groups to help pay for construction of sports facilities. Killpack said it's an attempt to find funding mechanisms other than state dollars to pay for the construction of stadiums and sports facilities.
"I am not a proponent of taking state tax dollars and putting them into stadiums," Killpack said. "Why should the state pony up?"
As for whether counties or cities should pony up, Killpack said: "I'm not involved in that fight."
He gave no timetable for when the bill would be drafted and had no additional details about the proposed measure.
"We're looking at a number of different scenarios," he said.
Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, also has made it clear he does not want state money going toward the stadium. Bramble is sponsoring a redevelopment agency bill that bans recreational facilities from using property tax dollars to pay for costs.
When RSL first proposed the stadium, the cost was estimated at $60 million. Team officials hoped half would be paid by the public. The recent spike in the price estimate, Ewing said, is due to all-encompassing costs to purchase the land, build proper infrastructure, create on-site parking, and build the hotel and broadcast studio.
The cost isn't too much higher than originally projected, Ewing said, because when RSL officials were looking to build downtown, they were hoping Salt Lake City could contribute between $55-$57 million for land costs and a general obligation bond for stadium development.
In addition to Major League Soccer games, RSL plans to host local soccer tournaments, high school football games, concerts, community events and outdoor conventions. Twenty thousand hard seats will be built, but for other events, seating could be expanded for up to 10,000 more.
The city of Sandy plans to start fixing up the project site, including repairing the 9400 South and State Street intersection that "has been on our radar screen since the Jordan Commons (was built)," said Nick Duerksen, the city's assistant community development director.
Although there may be a few "naysayers," Salt Lake County Councilman Randy Horiuchi said the majority of council members would like to "move on" and see the stadium constructed.
"The amount of revenue that could be paid for by tourists that doesn't hit Salt Lake County is an attractive alternative to have for serious, serious projects that benefit the citizens of Salt Lake County," Horiuchi said. "While they enjoy themselves in Salt Lake, they'll also invest themselves in Salt Lake."
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