According to a state government bonding statute, a public body must own 100 percent of the item it is financing. That means before Real Salt Lake can tap any of the $18 million the Legislature allocated for parking to buy land for a 25,000-seat soccer venue, the team must be willing to cede ownership to Salt Lake County.

"They can't take the money and use it for a stadium," Blake Wade, the county's bond counsel, told The Salt Lake Tribune on Monday.

He will deliver the same message to the County Council and Mayor Peter Corroon today.

Trey Fitz-Gerald, RSL's senior director of marketing and communication, said he was unaware of the restriction.

Even so, Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, a Sandy resident and an insider in the stadium negotiations, says discussions with the county have focused on building a shared parking facility, not using the $18 million to buy the land.

"That's never been contemplated," he said.

Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan also downplayed the public-financing prohibition.

"I don't think it makes any difference as long as we're still talking about parking," he said.

RSL executives have yet to say how they plan to purchase the land and then pay for a stadium planned near 9400 S. State Street in Sandy that could cost up to $75 million.

But county officials insist it is only a matter of time before the team comes calling for the millions the Legislature authorized for new stalls to service the South Towne Exposition Center. That money was part of an $80 million county bond to make over the Salt Palace Convention Center and boost parking at the Expo Center, both public entities.

As such, state law prohibits a private party, such as RSL, from using the cash. Federal tax law restrictions also would kick in if RSL attempted to use the tax-exempt bond, notes Wade, an attorney with Ballard, Spahr, Andrews and Ingersoll, a Salt Lake City law firm.

Room to maneuver still may exist depending on the funding proposal, Wade added, but "basically, those are the rules."

Curtis says he is under the impression the team or RSL investors - not taxpayers - would purchase the 19.7 acres of privately owned land. He said he would defer to other lawyers on whether the county could lease any land, should it be purchased with the bond money.

RSL owner Dave Checketts, along with Dolan, has emphasized in previous statements that any funding package would not "increase the load" on taxpayers.

"It is going to be significantly financed through private capital," he has said, declining to give a percentage.

A detailed funding plan should be unveiled by early next year, the team owner notes.

Meantime, county officials are getting anxious.

"Nobody's asked us to do anything," County Councilman Cort Ashton, who represents that portion of Sandy, said Monday. "We want to know what we can do legally with the dollars that were allocated by the state."

Unless the county wants in on the goal business, it appears it first must concentrate on scoring more parking for South Towne.

djensen@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporter Jacob Santini contributed to this story.