Salt Lake City planners expect to scale back and get it right.

City Council members wonder how the capital's proposed sports complex could take so long.

And whispers from environmental insiders suggest the whole plan could get sunk by a high water table, though city engineers deny it.

Just weeks after RSL secured $35 million in hotel taxes for a Sandy stadium - the soccer team pledged $7.5 million for new youth fields near Rose Park in the deal - Salt Lake City's soccer sanctuary appears bogged down.

Suddenly, the team has outlined a list of items "before we move forward" with the charitable donation, which RSL now deems an "investment." They include:

* Revenue streams from parking and concessions.

* Land at or near the project site for a soccer academy.

* Management of naming rights and sponsorships.

* A practice field for RSL at the project.

* Detailed business plans that demonstrate the ongoing viability of the complex.

"Before you write a check of that size, I think it's important to know the details," Checketts explained. "There's a lot of goodwill on both sides. I'm sure the project will get done."

But the two men who helped cement a $15.3 million bond, approved by voters in 2003, worry the team's new wish list could torpedo the project.

"It's really disconcerting," said Dave Spatafore, co-chairman of the Salt Lake Regional Athletics Complex Authority, the would-be management arm of the planned facility. "A $35 million check is a heck of a return on a $7.5 million investment."

Spatafore says that without the cash from parking and concessions, the 180-acre complex near 2000 North between Redwood Road and Interstate 215 would fall into disrepair. And, he insists, allowing a private party such as RSL to collect large profits at the complex could jeopardize the city's tax-exempt bond.

"We do not have a signed agreement with Real," Rick Graham, the city's community development director, recently told the City Council. "We are working out the details."

The biggest sticking point is the scaled-down project. Due to higher-than-anticipated costs, the city's blueprint now calls for 16 fields for soccer, rugby and lacrosse, plus four more for baseball and softball.

The original scheme foresaw 30 fields. There would be parking, restrooms and concessions, but the new model doesn't provide any lights, synthetic-turf soccer fields or the championship stadiums - considered the moneymakers - for soccer, baseball or softball.

To add those elements, city officials want a phase two, at a projected cost of $19 million.

While the negotiation continues, questions remain over a series of feasibility studies that the City Council funded with $350,000 in 2005. The studies are near completion but have not been released.

Jeff Salt, executive director of the environmental watchdog Great Salt Lakekeeper, worries the area is not suitable for development. He notes it was flooded in the mid-1980s.

"It's foolhardy to put something so unnatural in a flood plain that's going to kick back," he said.

But Dell Cook, a project manager for the city's Public Services Department, says he's seen the environmental study, and there are no red flags.

"I've read it, and it doesn't preclude doing this," Cook said.

Cook says engineers will do substantial grading for draining and provide a large buffer to prevent further polluting the Jordan River.

City Councilman Eric Jergensen is anxious about the feasibility studies and RSL's latest terms.

"If Real's demands are as they are written, it might pull these over to taxable bonds," he said. "And that is not acceptable."

Paul Burke, co-chairman of the athletics authority, says he is hopeful all parties will work through the impasse.

"The power of the voters here is much more compelling," he said. "This isn't about political judgments and backroom deals. We have a public vote."

Checketts says even though the scope has changed, his resolve has not.

"I am absolutely committed to getting this done," he said.

But Spatafore doubts RSL has the dough. He says the new terms provide a means to collect the $7.5 million - through naming rights.

As part of the deal for $35 million in hotel taxes, Sandy leaders say a draft interlocal agreement should be complete by week's end. And, they say, state leaders may toughen the language that requires RSL to donate the $7.5 million in order to receive the hotel taxes for the stadium project.

djensen@sltrib.com

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* ROSEMARY WINTERS contributed to this story.