Peter Corroon started out with a bit of a stutter, a pause. He mistakenly said “Salt Lake City” when he meant “Salt Lake County.” He grinned slightly at the glitch, corrected himself. Then, following a wind-up that — in the shiny political kind of way — nicely stroked the stakeholders in the Salt Lake Real soccer stadium deal, Corroon broke the news.

Salt Lake County would not cough up tax dollars for the stadium in Sandy. The end. For 2 1/2 years this game has been dragging on. Now it’s over.

Real owner Dave Checketts says so. Speculation still runs toward Checketts locating on old Geneva Steel property in Utah County. But as of this writing, he is still talking about selling the team, gathering up his Tinker Toys and moving on.

You can analyze this ending a dozen different ways. I was in the audience on October 12, 2005, just a few hundred yards from the proposed Sandy stadium site. Checketts and his confab announced their plans to move the team’s home from the University of Utah to Sandy. I’ll never forget it. I wrote about that day more than once. What really struck me then — sticks with me still — was the body language among all those proud guys in white shirts and ties. So much backslapping. Such confidence in the future.

There was this long line of South Salt Lake Valley Republicans — Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan and Republican Speaker of the House Greg Curtis (who represents Sandy), as well as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Checketts was running the news conference with a whole entourage of handlers and team boosters.

But curses! There was that little matter of what Salt Lake County might do. After Checketts had introduced his backers, he suddenly summoned Corroon to the platform. It seemed like a total afterthought. It felt like the guys had the deal greased, but it might be nice to invite Corroon up for a few minutes at the grown-up table.

I’m not saying this one moment predicted the final outcome. I’ve talked with plenty of county officials involved in the negotiations for $34 million of hotel taxes from Salt Lake County, and I’m convinced Corroon and others wanted the numbers to work. (Corroon has committed to putting $7.5 million toward youth soccer programs and facilities, BTW.)

The numbers did not work. I’m sure grinning, hopeful men at that stadium announcement long ago imagined they would wait Corroon out, delay delivery of the real financials (remember, Real Salt Lake didn’t reveal them to the county until mid-December) and get what they wanted.

Checketts may be a professional sports icon, a solid businessman, a hometown hero and all-around nice guy. But based on information from county experts, financial evaluations by an independent company and the county’s debt review panel, Real couldn’t prove solvency on this deal. And almost as troublesome, Checketts seemed determined first to build a commercial empire (concerts, retail, etc.) and then, a soccer stadium. It should have been the other way around.

I asked the mayor at today’s press conference if he thought the principal actors in this drama had sold his ability short, or flat-out dismissed him. He said he always tried to work in good faith. His top concern, he said, was the debt level and his responsibility to county taxpayers. Another reporter mentioned Dolan’s public complaint that would tarnish Salt Lake County’s image among big investors nationwide. Surely, Dolan predicted, this would energy for others interested in locating here.

Corroon’s reaction: “I guess my answer is, then don’t bring bad projects to Utah.”

Pundits all over town are predicting the county, the whole state, will regret this decision. It seems soccer will pass us by. We’ll be standing around, our mouths hanging open, looking like the people on the platform who were fussing with our luggage, our passports and purses and missed boarding the bullet train.

Hmm, maybe.

But for now, we’ve got a county mayor who had a hand on our wallet. I think it’s going to work out fine.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 8:35 pm and is filed under All, Sports, Politics, Community, Media, Big Utah, Crazy Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Peter Corroon started out with a bit of a stutter, a pause. He mistakenly said “Salt Lake City” when he meant “Salt Lake County.” He grinned slightly at the glitch, corrected himself. Then, following a wind-up that — in the shiny political kind of way — nicely stroked the stakeholders in the Salt Lake Real soccer stadium deal, Corroon broke the news.

Salt Lake County would not cough up tax dollars for the stadium in Sandy. The end. For 2 1/2 years this game has been dragging on. Now it’s over.

Real owner Dave Checketts says so. Speculation still runs toward Checketts locating on old Geneva Steel property in Utah County. But as of this writing, he is still talking about selling the team, gathering up his Tinker Toys and moving on.

You can analyze this ending a dozen different ways. I was in the audience on October 12, 2005, just a few hundred yards from the proposed Sandy stadium site. Checketts and his confab announced their plans to move the team’s home from the University of Utah to Sandy. I’ll never forget it. I wrote about that day more than once. What really struck me then — sticks with me still — was the body language among all those proud guys in white shirts and ties. So much backslapping. Such confidence in the future.

There was this long line of South Salt Lake Valley Republicans — Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan and Republican Speaker of the House Greg Curtis (who represents Sandy), as well as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Checketts was running the news conference with a whole entourage of handlers and team boosters.

But curses! There was that little matter of what Salt Lake County might do. After Checketts had introduced his backers, he suddenly summoned Corroon to the platform. It seemed like a total afterthought. It felt like the guys had the deal greased, but it might be nice to invite Corroon up for a few minutes at the grown-up table.

I’m not saying this one moment predicted the final outcome. I’ve talked with plenty of county officials involved in the negotiations for $34 million of hotel taxes from Salt Lake County, and I’m convinced Corroon and others wanted the numbers to work. (Corroon has committed to putting $7.5 million toward youth soccer programs and facilities, BTW.)

The numbers did not work. I’m sure grinning, hopeful men at that stadium announcement long ago imagined they would wait Corroon out, delay delivery of the real financials (remember, Real Salt Lake didn’t reveal them to the county until mid-December) and get what they wanted.

Checketts may be a professional sports icon, a solid businessman, a hometown hero and all-around nice guy. But based on information from county experts, financial evaluations by an independent company and the county’s debt review panel, Real couldn’t prove solvency on this deal. And almost as troublesome, Checketts seemed determined first to build a commercial empire (concerts, retail, etc.) and then, a soccer stadium. It should have been the other way around.

I asked the mayor at today’s press conference if he thought the principal actors in this drama had sold his ability short, or flat-out dismissed him. He said he always tried to work in good faith. His top concern, he said, was the debt level and his responsibility to county taxpayers. Another reporter mentioned Dolan’s public complaint that would tarnish Salt Lake County’s image among big investors nationwide. Surely, Dolan predicted, this would energy for others interested in locating here.

Corroon’s reaction: “I guess my answer is, then don’t bring bad projects to Utah.”

Pundits all over town are predicting the county, the whole state, will regret this decision. It seems soccer will pass us by. We’ll be standing around, our mouths hanging open, looking like the people on the platform who were fussing with our luggage, our passports and purses and missed boarding the bullet train.

Hmm, maybe.

But for now, we’ve got a county mayor who had a hand on our wallet. I think it’s going to work out fine.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 8:35 pm and is filed under All, Sports, Politics, Community, Media, Big Utah, Crazy Utah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.