(by Leigh Dethman and Autumn Linford desnews.com 7-18-06)
Goodbye Real Salt Lake. Hello Real Utah?
Developers of the former Geneva Steel site want to buy the imperiled Major League Soccer team, rename it and move it to Utah County. The team's current owner has threatened to sell Real Salt Lake and move it out of state by Aug. 12 if a soccer-specific stadium-funding plan isn't hammered out by then.
Real owner Dave Checketts is scheduled to meet with the developers later this week about the possibility of selling the team, said Michael Hutchings, co-owner of Anderson Geneva, a development company that purchased the Geneva Steel site for $46.8 million last November. Anderson Geneva is an affiliate of Sandy-based Anderson Development LLC.
"We're serious about buying the team," Hutchings said Monday. "If he's going to take it some place, we're saying, 'Wait a minute. Wait — don't do that. Let's sit down and talk about a purchase of the team.'"
Real CEO Dean Howes declined to comment on the possible sale, saying he hadn't heard of Anderson Geneva's intention to buy the team.
The team is in a time crunch because Checketts imposed an Aug. 12 deadline to hammer out details on an in-state stadium or sell the team to the highest bidder.
Last week, the Salt Lake County Council rejected a plan to give the team $30 million in hotel-tax money to help build a stadium. Since then, offers have come from Rochester, N.Y., and St. Louis to purchase the team, and at least three other Utah locations have pitched plans to keep the team in Utah.
"We have always focused on the 12th being the day we were supposed to do our groundbreaking," Howes told the Deseret Morning News on Friday. "We've got that day in our mind. If we don't have some kind of direction then, we need to take a harder look at alternatives."
Anderson Geneva made its pitch to buy the team and offer a stadium site after reading news reports that Checketts might sell the team to an out-of-state investor if a stadium deal isn't arranged by his deadline.
Even if Checketts keeps the team, Utah County could be the new home of Real Salt Lake — or possibly Real Utah. Anderson Geneva has offered up to 30 acres of free land to build a stadium on the grounds of the old Geneva Steel plant.
"I think we're making an offer to Dave Checketts that he's going to have a hard time refusing," Hutchings said.
The land is in Vineyard, a 150-resident town west of Orem.
It's the kind of place where alfalfa fields and wood pole fences are more common than buildings and old rusting plows and tractors serve as lawn art in front of the few houses dotting the otherwise open land.
Folks in Vineyard have mixed emotions when it comes to the possibility of building a major sports arena in their town.
On one hand, the stadium could bring in a swarm of new businesses such as restaurants and stores. On the other hand, old-timers in the town aren't sure how they feel about trading their peaceful, simple way of life to grow businesses instead of crops.
"I'm torn about the soccer field," said Tina Holdaway, whose family grows alfalfa at the end of a narrow road in Vineyard. She said she and her husband always dreamed of raising their family in a small town and teaching them to work the land with their own hands.
"You can't stop progress, and it needs to happen, but it's sad to think it's going to be different," she said. "Driving down this road after a long day of work — it's so peaceful. We might have that somewhere else, but not in Vineyard. I guess we'll enjoy our peace while we have it."
With or without the stadium, Vineyard is growing, residents say. Most, by now, are resigned to that fact. Some even believe a Real stadium would be the jump-start Vineyard needs.
"This would probably put us on the map," said Arthur Pheysey, who has lived in Vineyard for 28 years. "We're going to change anyway. Vineyard is the last pocket of undeveloped land in Utah Valley. We're on the explosion edge of development. This would be a good thing down the road."
Hutchings said Anderson Geneva has already held informal meetings with Vineyard officials about the possibility of building the stadium within the town's borders — and received positive responses.
If the decision to move the team to Vineyard goes through, Hutchings said, more formal presentations with definite plans for the stadium will be presented to the town.
No additional tax dollars would be needed to build at the old Geneva 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 would allow local municipalities to use RDA funds to revitalize inactive industrial sites.
Hutchings believes that handing over free land is worth it for the potential commercial development around a stadium. The stadium would serve as an anchor to a 1,700-acre mixed-use development. If all goes well, Hutchings wants to break ground by the end of the year.
But Salt Lake County isn't giving up on Real Salt Lake, despite heavy criticism from the team's owner, as well as an official letter asking the County Council to stop wasting "any more of your valuable time on an issue that appears unable to proceed."
County Council Chairman Cort Ashton is trying to convince his colleagues to support a plan that would give the team $23 million in hotel-tax dollars for stadium infrastructure — down from the $30 million the council rejected last week.
Under Ashton's plan, the county would control parking at the stadium as well as the $137 million the facility would generate in 2008, according to team financial documents obtained by the Deseret Morning News. But before any plan is approved, the stadium-funding proposal would go before the county's Debt Review Committee and be up for debate in a public hearing.
Ashton said although Checketts' recent public tongue-lashing of the council and County Mayor Peter Corroon was probably not in good taste, "lots of people have stubbed their toes" and said things they shouldn't have in the process of stadium negotiations.
"I certainly have tried to not take anything personally," Ashton said. "I'm just hoping cooler heads will prevail, and we will all be ladies and gentlemen and statesmen about it and doing what's best for the county.
"Some may call it a gamble," he added. "I don't know what in life isn't."
Councilman Joe Hatch said he won't support a stadium-funding plan without a guarantee that downtown Salt Lake will reap substantial benefit from the hotel-room tax.
All in all, Hatch said any attempt to create a new funding plan in Salt Lake County is a complete waste of time.
"I honestly believe it's now totally, completely unsalvageable," Hatch said of a stadium-funding deal through the county. "Why are we still working on this? Don't we have a sense of pride?"
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