RSL Stadium?.......Will it happen?

[SLC Projects]

I wonder if RSL is going to have a 2nd groundbreaking?

[wrendog]

from the D-news:

"Sant said Real has secured $10 million to borrow from a private financier to begin construction on the stadium. Construction should start within two weeks. However, the stadium will most likely be completed in August 2008 rather than the original July 4, 2008, deadline because of the delay it took securing public dollars."

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by wrendog

from the D-news:

"Sant said Real has secured $10 million to borrow from a private financier to begin construction on the stadium. Construction should start within two weeks. However, the stadium will most likely be completed in August 2008 rather than the original July 4, 2008, deadline because of the delay it took securing public dollars."

That's good news. Glad to hear the word "Construction" again with the stadium. Let's hope they can get it done this time.

[delts145]

Stadium site OK'd; concerns persist

By Amelia Nielson-Stowell
Deseret Morning News
SANDY — After hearing complaints from neighbors that parking, traffic and noise will be detrimental to their home environment, Sandy's Planning Commission gave the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium preliminary site plan approval Thursday but with limitations.
The commission will review a parking and traffic management plan on March 15, where they will also discuss the extended hours of operation for the $110 million stadium. In addition to the seasonal soccer games, the stadium will play host to a variety of concerts and other special events, and Real is requesting that operation hours go till midnight Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
That late-night noise and traffic, however, are upsetting to stadium neighbors who are nervous about the impact the 111-foot-high, 524,766-square-foot, 20,000-to-25,000-seat structure will have on their home lives.
"Who wants to live by a noisy stadium? That's what scares me," said Robert Bennet, who lives on 9400 South across from the stadium site and is concerned about getting his 2-year-old daughter to sleep on those loud game nights.
"How are we supposed to take care of our families and go to sleep if you've got this going on till 1-2 in the morning? ... It's going to be up in the neighborhood that's going to suffer for it."
Crowds at the South Towne Expo Center are already parking on side streets such as Bennet's. Other residents, like Gladys Wilde, who lives on the east side of 9400 South, are concerned about the added traffic problems.
"We have the Expo Center, we've got Larry's place (Larry Miller-owned Jordan Commons), now we're going to have this. As it stands now, I can barely get out of my street," she said. "I'm not exactly against the stadium, but at some point we have to consider people's quality of life."
Planning commissioners agreed they wanted to protect the neighborhoods and are waiting on a report from a special parking committee put together at the request of Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan. Commissioners also voiced problems with pedestrian access to the stadium. Under a state-approved plan that gave the team $35 million of hotel-tax revenue for land and parking at the site, Real must come up with 1,000 new parking stalls in a five-minute walking distance from the stadium.
Real plans to begin grading and demolishing on the site within the next two weeks, but further construction cannot take place until the parking and operation hours are worked out and the Planning Commission gives final site plan approval.

[Viperlord]

Petitioners seek to nix soccer stadium tax law
Private group says it has an 'awesome task'; referendums historically have rough going in Utah
By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 03/06/2007 12:43:33 AM MST


Five co-workers have banded together in a long-odds attempt to eliminate a new law that would spend taxpayer money on a soccer stadium in Sandy.
Referendums in Utah are rarely attempted and even more rarely successful. The last to make the ballot was a land issue in 1974. Voters rejected it.
Salt Lake City resident Doug Q. Kitt recognizes the effort is "an awesome task," but he said he and his co-workers at a biotech company are fighting against government intervention in private business.
"The Legislature is not representing the majority of the people in this case," Kitt said. "I don't think that is an appropriate use of government funds."
Polls have shown that the public doesn't like the public assistance for Real Salt Lake. Peter Corroon, the mayor of Salt Lake County, nixed the deal before lawmakers and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. revived it, saying a stadium and a professional soccer team will help Utah's economy in the long run.
"I guess I'm just a little bit perplexed," said Syracuse Republican Sen. Sheldon Killpack, who sponsored the bill, HB38, in the Senate. "The funding doesn't really affect anyone's taxes locally."
The bill would spend $35 million in taxes collected by people staying in Salt Lake County hotels on a parking structure and the land for the stadium.
Kitt's co-worker, Brad SwedÂlund, is leading
the referendum effort. He could not be reached Monday evening, but Kitt said none of the petition sponsors had experience in such efforts.
The referendum petition filed Monday afternoon is the second this year, and came in just a few hours before the deadline.
Another petition, filed last week by the education establishment, seeks to overturn Utah's new private school voucher program.
The differences between the two attempts are stark. The anti-voucher group has the backing of the PTA and the state's largest teachers union, providing an instant volunteer group to collect signatures. Kitt said the anti-RSL group is hoping that public outrage will spur involvement.
[email protected]

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by Viperlord

Petitioners seek to nix soccer stadium tax law
Private group says it has an 'awesome task'; referendums historically have rough going in Utah
By Matt Canham
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 03/06/2007 12:43:33 AM MST


Five co-workers have banded together in a long-odds attempt to eliminate a new law that would spend taxpayer money on a soccer stadium in Sandy.
Referendums in Utah are rarely attempted and even more rarely successful. The last to make the ballot was a land issue in 1974. Voters rejected it.
Salt Lake City resident Doug Q. Kitt recognizes the effort is "an awesome task," but he said he and his co-workers at a biotech company are fighting against government intervention in private business.
"The Legislature is not representing the majority of the people in this case," Kitt said. "I don't think that is an appropriate use of government funds."
Polls have shown that the public doesn't like the public assistance for Real Salt Lake. Peter Corroon, the mayor of Salt Lake County, nixed the deal before lawmakers and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. revived it, saying a stadium and a professional soccer team will help Utah's economy in the long run.
"I guess I'm just a little bit perplexed," said Syracuse Republican Sen. Sheldon Killpack, who sponsored the bill, HB38, in the Senate. "The funding doesn't really affect anyone's taxes locally."
The bill would spend $35 million in taxes collected by people staying in Salt Lake County hotels on a parking structure and the land for the stadium.
Kitt's co-worker, Brad SwedÂlund, is leading
the referendum effort. He could not be reached Monday evening, but Kitt said none of the petition sponsors had experience in such efforts.
The referendum petition filed Monday afternoon is the second this year, and came in just a few hours before the deadline.
Another petition, filed last week by the education establishment, seeks to overturn Utah's new private school voucher program.
The differences between the two attempts are stark. The anti-voucher group has the backing of the PTA and the state's largest teachers union, providing an instant volunteer group to collect signatures. Kitt said the anti-RSL group is hoping that public outrage will spur involvement.
[email protected]

Where do I sign?

[Viperlord]

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=959346

Opponents of Soccer Stadium Are Organizing a Referendum
March 6th, 2007 @ 4:01pm
John Daley Reporting

The governor and lawmakers joined together a few weeks ago to help Real Salt Lake secure a stadium deal. Now, a group of citizens vows to fight the deal at the ballot box.

It's the second referendum drive now in the works.



That's right. We're talking about two of the most controversial measures to pass this legislative session. One is the school voucher bill. The other is the soccer stadium deal. Two groups are getting organized to put it on the ballot, but the hurdle is that the number of signatures needed to do that is very high.

This was the scene a month ago as state leaders announced they'd sealed the deal for a new soccer stadium in Sandy.

Governor Jon Huntsman, Feb. 8, 2007: "This is too important to let slip through the cracks."

Polls show a solid portion of the public was uneasy with the deal. One of them was Salt Lake City resident Brad Swedlund, who, along with some friends, decided to do something about it.

Brad Swedlund, referendum drive organizer: "A process was done, and it's frustrating to me that that very careful process was overridden by some people that seemed to me to just jump into it and ram it through without much discussion."

Now the race is on to gather tens of thousands of signatures to put it on the ballot via referendum. It joins another referendum effort underway by opponents of a controversial school voucher bill.

Political scientist Kirk Jowers says the referendum hurdle is high, requiring 92,000 signatures in about a month to put it on the ballot. If they do clear that hurdle, it will likely be in November of '08.

Kirk Jowers, director, Hinckley Institute of Politics: "It becomes a very difficult process. You need a lot of troops on the ground to actually do it, or you need a lot of money to be able to pay people to do it."



Brad Swedlund: "It's a huge hurdle. But you know, 70 percent of the people, the way I understand, are against public funding of the stadium."

We attempted to get a comment from Real Salt Lake today but were unsuccessful.

By the way, gathering that many signatures, 92,000 in about a month, would require gathering roughly 3,000 a day each day in a 10-hour day. That's about 300 signatures in an hour.

[Viperlord]

e-mail the guy in charge at...

[email protected]

[SLC Projects]

What? put it on a ballot? and what then? wait till November of '08? And then if it passes then wait till 2009 till groundbreaking?
Why do we have to keep messing around with this issue. People just need to get over it. Sandy is getting a soccer stadium. I thought this was a done deal but yet people have to keep fighting it.
Since when did this "stadium" became like a "walmart" that nobody wants in their neighborhood, but yet everyone shops there once it's build.

[wrendog]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!


stop it already.. build the freaking stadium

[Viperlord]

heard back from Brad,.....

Thanks for your support. The process is more
complicted than I realized even after having studied
it carefully. I just received my petition packet, I
need to make copies, those need to be stamped at the
Elections office and then I can circulate. I hope to
have some petitions ready to circulate by late
tomorrow though I probably won't circulate until
later. Honestly I'm not sure how to get this out to a
broad public but we'll try. I will try to let you
know where we might have a little signing gathering
for those that have expressed a specific interest.
What part of the state to you live in? You don't need
to be specific. Just curious.

Thanks!

[DevdogAZ]

Interesting that Utah hasn't had a referendum since 1974. That's amazing. Arizona has them all the time. Anytime taxpayers aren't happy with public funds going toward a project, they get enough signatures to force an election. I guess Utah's laws for the signature collection must be much more stringent.

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by Viperlord

heard back from Brad,.....

Thanks for your support. The process is more
complicted than I realized even after having studied
it carefully. I just received my petition packet, I
need to make copies, those need to be stamped at the
Elections office and then I can circulate. I hope to
have some petitions ready to circulate by late
tomorrow though I probably won't circulate until
later. Honestly I'm not sure how to get this out to a
broad public but we'll try. I will try to let you
know where we might have a little signing gathering
for those that have expressed a specific interest.
What part of the state to you live in? You don't need
to be specific. Just curious.

Thanks!

This Brad guy needs to get a life. Unless he lives in a hotel then the RSL stadium funding will not even hurt him.

[delts145]

"I guess I'm just a little bit perplexed," said Syracuse Republican Sen. Sheldon Killpack, who sponsored the bill, HB38, in the Senate. "The funding doesn't really affect anyone's taxes locally."
The bill would spend $35 million in taxes collected by people staying in Salt Lake County hotels on a parking structure and the land for the stadium.

I hope this Brad character is a miserable failure in this uninformed effort.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by delts145

"I guess I'm just a little bit perplexed," said Syracuse Republican Sen. Sheldon Killpack, who sponsored the bill, HB38, in the Senate. "The funding doesn't really affect anyone's taxes locally."
The bill would spend $35 million in taxes collected by people staying in Salt Lake County hotels on a parking structure and the land for the stadium.

I hope this Brad character is a miserable failure in this uninformed effort.

Oh, Please! If Senator Killpack is honestly "perplexed" as to why anyone would have a problem with the scheme that he sponsored, he needs to have his head examined. My guess is that the senator from Syracuse doesn't live in a hotel in Salt Lake County either, so what business in hell does he or anyone else in the state legislature have dictating how the county will spend its own hotel tax revenue. I'm not opposed to RSL getting a stadium in Sandy, but I'm vehemently opposed to the way that taxpayer money is being funneled away to fund this portion of it.

The fact is that this money belongs to Salt Lake County, the county planned to spend it elsewhere, deemed the stadium deal too risky and said NO. In came the state legislature, which decided it would be prudent to re-write the law, take over the county's money and spend it as they pleased. If this was such a wonderful deal, why didn't Killpack and the rest of them steal the money to fund it from their own damn constituents instead of those in Salt Lake County?

Bottom line: Regardless of who pays the hotel taxes, the money belonged to the people of SL County, until it was stolen from the people by the legislature and given to a millionaire because he didn't want to pay for his own stadium. Our representatives got scared and hastily made happen the deal that had been examined, studied, and rejected time and time again because Checketts childishly threatened to take his ball and play somewhere else if we wouldn't give him the money he wanted within a week.

How in the hell am I supposed to think that this was a good deal?

[DevdogAZ]

Sure, the public money going toward the stadium is mostly being paid by out-of-state visitors. But what about all the other projects that could have been funded with this money? They'll either be scrapped entirely, or the citizens of SL County will have to come up with the money from other sources, neither of which is a good deal in my opinion.

[wrendog]

this was earmarked money for stuff like this.. parking garages, stadiums.. The only reason this is being opposed so greatly is because of the amount of press it got. There are TONS of stuff/projects that taxpayer money is being spent on (millions of dollars) that no one really knows about. If everyone knew what was being done with taxpayer money, the RSL stadium wouldn't be a big deal.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by wrendog

this was earmarked money for stuff like this.. parking garages, stadiums.. The only reason this is being opposed so greatly is because of the amount of press it got. There are TONS of stuff/projects that taxpayer money is being spent on (millions of dollars) that no one really knows about. If everyone knew what was being done with taxpayer money, the RSL stadium wouldn't be a big deal.

Unfortunately that's just not true. The money was earmarked in 2005 to renovate the Salt Palace and build a parking garage at the S. Towne Expo Center. It was never considered for financing a stadium until the legislature banned Salt Lake from using RDA funds to build a stadium downtown, and Tom Dolan and other Sandy backers went hunting for public money to pay for a stadium at the Sandy site.

From the Deseret News (Feb. 3, 2007) :

In 2005, the Legislature passed a bill that gave Salt Lake County the authority to use hotel-tax revenue to both renovate the Salt Palace and build a parking garage at the South Towne Exposition Center. The county bonded for $20 million about 18 months ago to pay for the garage, but construction stalled as the county negotiated a possible funding deal with Real for a stadium.
Even after killing a deal to fund the stadium, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon insisted the county would still build the garage. If the Senate passes the bill, he will have no choice — the state would take that $20 million and build it for the county.
However, the county would still have to pay the debt payments on the $20 million, the county's chief financial officer Doug Willmore said.
Salt Lake County Council Chairman Mark Crockett said if state officials wanted the stadium so badly, they should have just funded it in the first place "without putting us in the middle." "If it's truly a state priority, then I'm not sure why it's this county alone that pays for it," Crockett said.

[Viperlord]

getrealutah.org


http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660201241,00.html



Petition drive kicks off over stadium funds

5 Utahns want the voters to weigh in on Real deal

By Amelia Nielson-Stowell
Deseret Morning News
Under the moniker "Get Real Utah," five Utah residents are leading a petition drive to let voters decide whether public dollars should fund a soccer stadium in Sandy.
The petition organizers, four from Salt Lake City and one from Park City, filed a referendum request with the Lieutenant Governor's Office Monday, the last day a referendum application could be filed against actions made by the state during the 2007 legislative session.
Brad Swedlund, 50, who is leading the charge, believes the government abused its powers when state leaders pushed through a plan to give Real Salt Lake $35 million in hotel-tax dollars for land and parking at the stadium site.
That money comes from Salt Lake County's cut of taxes — funding that Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon had denied days earlier, calling it a risky investment.
"The county government did a good job throughout considering the issue," Swedlund said. "Obviously, the Legislature isn't paying attention to their own mantra of local government, local control."
Swedlund describes himself as an "average Joe" who was frustrated that a deal was quickly pushed through the legislative bodies last month at the request of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
The other four referendum applicants are Robyn Riley, Douglas Kitt, Jerry Septon and Cara Solimeno. The five are co-workers, and their decision to file stemmed from water-cooler talk about the stadium politics, Swedlund said.
However, the group has a big task ahead. Per state law, they must collect 91,996 signatures of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election. Those signatures must be collected statewide from at least 15 counties by April 9.
"We have a huge hurdle to overcome in getting the signatures. In essence, that means close to 100,000 signatures," Swedlund said, since some who sign may not be valid. "We don't have big money backing us, we're just ordinary people."
The measure directing the $35 million to the stadium project will not take effect until April 30, which is days after the April 24 deadline when the state reports whether enough signatures have been gathered for a referendum.
Statewide referendums have never passed in Utah. However, this year there are two pending applications, including Swedlund's. The other is being pushed by public-school advocates who want to shoot down the state's new voucher program for private schools.
According to two Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV polls, the majority of the Utah voters supported Corroon's decision and believed the Legislature should not give the soccer team public money. But the deal had bipartisan support from both the House and Senate in February.
House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake City, was part of the "yes" votes last month but clarified in debates that "it comes with a lot of trepidation because our public has not been with us."
He complimented the referendum process Tuesday and said he wasn't surprised a petition had been filed.
"It's understandable that members of the public are going to be concerned and upset," Becker said. "I really feel that if we as state legislators and state decisionmakers had a more open and transparent decision-making process, then a lot of the concerns that are very legitimate and appropriate concerns of the public, we may not have seen such a strong reaction to the decision that was made."
Greg Zenger, a real-estate agent from Holladay who stood outside Sandy's planning commission last week and handed out political cartoons that satirized the deal and "fat cats" involved, applauded Swedlund and friends.
"I'm just hoping they can jump through all the difficult hoops to get it done," he said. "This isn't a Sandy issue, this is a state issue."
Sandy officials, however, said they are not worried.
"Power to them," said city spokeswoman Trina Klinger, "but I don't think there's a whole lot of concern right now."
Swedlund is hoping a grass-roots movement will help garner the signatures needed. The petition organizers have set up a Web site, getrealutah.org, that should be up and running in a matter of days, and until then, Swedlund is asking people to contact him through his e-mail, [email protected].

[wrendog]

Down With Swedlund!

ok fine.. i am just a big RSL supporter and want to see the stadium already. I respect Swedlunds right to do this petition.. I just hope it fails and fails miserably.