For the owners of Real Salt Lake, the ghost of the Sandy stadium just won’t go away. Most Salt Lake County residents, according to a poll conducted by the Deseret Morning News and local broadcaster KSL-TV, are livid that hotel tax dollars are going toward building a soccer stadium. In fact, 65 percent of respondents are incensed enough that they said they would sign a petition to have the $35 million granted by the Utah State Legislature repealed.
The poll of 161 county residents, which the paper says has a +/- margin of error of 7.7 percent, shows that 63 percent believe Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative leaders should not have passed the measure in the first place. It was conducted just five days after Utahans filed a referendum request with the state to let voters decide whether or not the tax money should go to RSL. Those tax dollars, however, would come from the pockets of tourists, not residents.
Meanwhile disgruntled residents have organized a campaign called Get Real Utah. The group has until April 19 to collect 92,000 signatures from 15 counties to force a referendum on the issue.