I'm really begining to hate Real Salt Lake. I wish they would have been sold to Saint Louis!
Proposed Sandy soccer academy stirs SLC mayor's ire
By Rosemary Winters
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:07/10/2007 06:38:00 AM MDT
Sandy has snagged a Major League Soccer stadium and $35 million in Salt Lake County hotel taxes to help build it. Now, the suburban city wants to land Real Salt Lake's elite soccer academy - once bound for Utah's capital - and Mayor Rocky Anderson is peeved.
Tonight, Sandy's City Council will pore over the details of a draft development agreement with RSL to build the $110 million stadium, using the county tax revenue and $10 million pledged by Sandy for land, infrastructure and parking. The document, which is expected to be approved next week, requires RSL to establish a soccer academy in Utah and "make its best efforts" to locate it in Sandy.
RSL also is encouraged to move its headquarters to Sandy - if the team ever decides to abandon its Trolley Corners offices in Salt Lake City.
Anderson says the academy - like RSL's $7.5 million contribution toward a youth sports complex - always was promised to Salt Lake City. That's why he lobbied state lawmakers earlier this year for the team to receive those hotel taxes, even though his city lost out on the stadium itself.
"When [RSL officials] went up to the Legislature, they made it very clear to us that the academy would be in Salt Lake City," Anderson said Monday. If the academy is built in Sandy, "it might even constitute an interference with contractual relationships."
"They made the promise. A promise is a contract," Anderson said, acknowledging RSL has not signed any written agreements to build the academy in Utah's capital.
Last month, the team delivered a letter of credit for the $7.5 million pegged for Salt Lake City's youth fields. But lately RSL has been noncommittal about the academy's location.
"The greater Salt Lake County area" is a possibility, RSL Chief Executive Officer Dean Howes said in May.
Team spokesman Trey Fitzgerald confirmed Monday that RSL has not found a site for the academy - that's not at the top of the priority list. And the franchise is waiting to comment on Sandy's draft agreement until the team's lawyers review it.
City Council Chairman Bryant Anderson said Sandy doesn't have a site set for the academy but "there are places in the vicinity of the stadium that would work." Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan has said he would welcome the project.
In the draft, Sandy also requests RSL provide marketing opportunities, access to a free, 12-person suite and use of the stadium for community events four times per year. And Sandy wants final say on who gets naming rights to the stadium.
In 1996, the Utah Grizzlies hockey team drew community outrage and a rare rebuke from the LDS Church when it mentioned the possibility of selling the naming rights for West Valley City's E Center to Coors Brewing Co.
"We obviously want a sponsor . . . that would reflect the values of our family-oriented community," said Councilman Dennis Tenney, though he noted control of naming rights was not a "deal breaker" for him.
As part of the deal, Sandy will buy the 29 acres at 9256 S. State St. for the stadium and lease the land back to RSL. The property is worth $25.7 million, according to the document. In April, RSL owner Dave Checketts said the team paid $22 million for the land, and Sandy would pay "exactly to the penny" what the team spent.
Layton-Turner Construction is building the stadium for $72.4 million. And RSL plans to spend $11.9 million on public infrastructure and parking, which can be reimbursed by public funds. Still, if Sandy invests its combined $45 million in public money in the land, parking and infrastructure expenses outlined in the agreement, that leaves $7.4 million unspent.
Bryant Anderson said he asked the city's economic-development director what happens with the remainder, but hasn't received an answer yet. It could be part of tonight's discussion.
By July 31, Sandy plans to issue the $35 million in bonds, which will be paid back over the next 20 years using the first 15 percent of Salt Lake County's 4.25 percent transient-room tax. In the draft agreement, Sandy promises to issue its $10 million bond, backed by new property taxes generated by the stadium, no later than March 1.
If RSL develops retail space, offices and lodging around the stadium - as planned - it can receive another $5 million in tax-increment financing from Sandy for infrastructure expenses.
Jordan School District, which will receive property-tax revenue from the project, is not being asked to participate in any of the stadium financing.
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Sorry about the long post, I didn't have a link.
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I've already decided to boycott RSL and Sandy in general. This is one county resident that won't be lured to "The New Downtown" 
you Sandy, for fracturing the valley and decentralizing the entertainment here.
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