By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor, Soccer America
As a proposal to build a soccer stadium in suburban Sandy fell apart in the aftermath of leaked documents spelling out the team's financial status, rumors arose that perhaps Real Salt Lake operator-investor Dave Checketts would move the team.
Phoenix and San Antonio were mentioned in news reports and of course there s always St. Louis, home city of the NHL team Checketts recently purchased and one of many cities seriously studying the prospects of using a soccer stadium as the centerpiece of a major project.
Not out of the picture, either, is Philadelphia: MLS has reached agreements with Rowan College to broker a deal that could place a soccer stadium about 15 miles south of Philly in 2009, but the league has held discussions about a team playing in the city or nearby as soon as next season in another facility.
How much of this is real, and how much is Real posturing, won't be known for a while. Real is negotiating to bring over a more illustrious namesake, Real Madrid, for an August friendly at BYU's Lavell Edwards Stadium, and has used the prospects of such major matches as well as last year s USA-Costa Rica qualifier at Rice-Eccles Stadium that drew 40,586 fans to strengthen its case as a viable sports enterprise.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon has rejected a plan to use $35 million of hotel-tax revenue to partially fund the construction of a stadium, to which the city of Sandy would contribute another $10 million of the estimated $140 million cost. State lawmakers and Sandy city officials had reached an agreement last November.
The Sandy deal could be revived under a different financial plan, but the two sides haven't discussed anything for a week. Team officials are furious that financial details they said were ''confidential'' were published in the Deseret Morning News last week, citing RSL losses of approximately $3.4 million in 2005 and estimates of $2.3 million this year and $1.9 million in 2007.
MLS doesn't trumpet its financial dealings, except when the Galaxy makes history by turning a profit and it signs landmark deals like the one announced in 2004 through which adidas is investing $150 million in the league and its properties.
Yet those losses, while sobering, aren't shocking in the modern sports marketplace. MLS, though, is still fighting the stigma that pro soccer is a loser in America and always will be. In Utah, the league and the sport had seemingly cleared the hurdle but in the aftermath of the losses being disclosed came renewed wariness of the league's long-term viability.
Long gone are the days of a year ago, when Sandy, Salt Lake City and several other communities were submitting proposals. The team's dismal record hasn't helped the situation, either.
Checketts has great clout in the community and his power and leadership and vision are sorely needed. Secrecy, strong-arm tactics, and threats don't seem to be working.
MAGIC NUMBER. If Toronto comes in as planned next year, and no teams are dropped or added, MLS will play the 2007 season with 13 teams. American sports leagues have played with an odd number of teams and as cumbersome as it might be, the league was prepared to go with 11 in 2004, had Guadalajara owner Jorge Vergara started his MLS operation as he had originally forecast.
There's been speculation Kansas City might go on hiatus for a year until its ownership and stadium issues were resolved. Denials from league and team officials were quickly forthcoming, and while theoretically MLS could play with 12 teams including Toronto, it's unlikely the parties involved, especially the MLS Players' Union and U.S. Soccer, would approve such a plan.
How could the MLSPU agree to the loss of more than two dozen jobs, temporary or otherwise, while the league adds a foreign team and authorizes the employment of more non-Americans?
Maybe it's Kansas City, which will need to find a temporary home while Arrowhead Stadium is being renovated next year, or another team that moves to Phoenix or San Antonio or Philadelphia or wherever, a la San Jose to Houston, but whacking an American team while adding a Canadian entry ain't going to happen.
Dropping down to the USL for a season is another possible, but drastically unlikely, option.