RSL statement concerning Salt Lake county council vote

(realsaltlake.com 7-11-06)

Real Salt Lake Media Relations
SALT LAKE CITY -- The following statement from Real Salt Lake Owner David W. Checketts responds to today's Salt Lake County Council 5-4 vote to reject the Sandy City proposal to use $35 million of legislature-approved Transient Room Tax funds in order to trigger hundreds of millions in private investment for a three-phase stadium/hotel, commercial/retail and residential project in the center of the Salt Lake Valley, located between I-15 to the West and State Street to the East, and between 9000 and 9400 South:
Statement from David Checketts:

Today's County Council vote against building a stadium in Sandy is a setback for our club. It is, however, not the end of the road.

We appreciate the thoughtful leadership of Governor Huntsman, Mayor Tom Dolan, Speaker Greg Curtis, President John Valentine, and Senator Curt Bramble who have worked with us to make this stadium and the surrounding development a possibility.

We have said we are willing to invest significant private capital - in excess of a half-billion dollars - but, the construction of the stadium would require a public-private partnership. We were presented with the opportunity to have the hotel room tax used solely to purchase land and build infrastructure while we built the stadium with private capital.

The actions of some members of the council today coupled with the lack of support by the County Mayor, despite his repeated commitments to us otherwise, puts the future of the club in Utah in serious jeopardy.

We are grateful to the fans of RSL who have turned out in record numbers. We appreciate our sponsors and the University of Utah who have shown great support. And, we thank our media partners who have made our games available to so many of our fans.

The vision my partners and I have always held is to create a community gathering place that would stimulate economic development and give the Salt Lake community a presence in the global sport of soccer. Many on the council have supported and in fact share our vision.

The council members who have opposed today's motion, along with the County Mayor, have in my view demonstrated a total disregard for the future of our community and our state. They believe, mistakenly, that they have protected the Utah taxpayer. In fact, they have only stood in the way of what would be one of the largest private capital investments ever made in state history.