In fact, the team isn't predicting its first profit - a modest $11,000 - until 2010.
From there, though, RSL predicts the profits will start rolling in, topping $2.2 million by 2015.
That's according to financial documents - which the team is fighting to keep sealed - that were obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
The RSL operating model also projects a consistent increase in attendance for 10 consecutive years with near sellouts between 2010 and 2015, which bucks team trends in Major League Soccer.
Dean Howes, RSL's chief executive officer, called the leak of the figures a breach of confidentiality and said he was highly offended. However, he confirmed several trends in the report.
The figures showing a five-year deficit from 2005 through 2009 are correct, Howes said.
"The numbers and debt we incur at some point will start drawing against a profit," he explained, adding that the turning point should be 2010.
Howes also confirmed a yearly uptick in attendance - RSL predicts a per-game average of 20,228 seats sold by 2011, exceeding the planned stadium's capacity - despite figures that show ebbs and flows in ticket sales for other MLS franchises.
"We're not doing this to fail," Howes said, noting that the team - not taxpayers - would pay for any expansion of the planned 20,000-seat stadium.
He said records indicate an internal rate of return at "a very modest 12 percent." RSL also must pay a 30 percent share of ticket sales to the MLS, according to Howes. That amount increases from roughly $2 million in 2008 to $3.7 million in 2015, according to the income statement.
Season tickets also show a steady growth, jumping from 8,000 this year to nearly 12,000 in 2011. The team projects an average of 20,000-plus tickets sold per game between 2011 and 2015.
"We hope that is true," Howes said.
Those rosy attendance projections make Salt Lake County Councilman Mark Crockett nervous.
"It is different than what I understand the league has experienced to date," he said.
And Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, notes attendance typically spikes the first year a new stadium opens - RSL is shooting to open in Sandy for the 2008 season and average 17,522 seats sold per game - then dips when the novelty wears off.
"The uncertainty is tremendous." Jerman says the taxpayers association sees feasibility studies for many tax-funded projects, including the South Mountain Golf Club and Utah County's iProvo communications network, that fall short on their financial estimates.
"Quite frequently, these projections are excessively optimistic," he warned.
RSL has asked for $45 million in public money - $35 million from Salt Lake County - to purchase the land and infrastructure for its $150 million soccer complex. County officials still are waiting for a formal proposal from the team, which is compiling cost estimates.
Once submitted, the county's Debt Review Committee must examine attendance assumptions, pricing models and RSL's private investors, according to county Budget Director Lance Brown, a member of that board.
"If they do project operating losses, do they have the cash flow to cover it?" Brown asked when told about the income statement. "That's a question we want to ask." County Auditor Sean Thomas says he has not seen RSL's financial records and that makes it difficult to determine if the enterprise is sound or not.
"At the very least, they need to make substantial disclosures of numbers to the elected representatives of taxpayers and citizens," Thomas said. Right now, he notes, a proposed model to use county hotel taxes to buy the land does not make principal payments on a bond for the first seven years.
"That departs from the principles that got the county the triple-A bond rating," he said. "Should we do it? I say, 'no.' " This week, RSL executives announced their intent to appeal a decision by Mayor Peter Corroon to release the financial information. The Government Records Access and Management Act request came from news organizations, including The Tribune, and a community activist. The appeal will be heard by the county's GRAMA committee.
"This is just very, very atypical," a frustrated Howes said about the leak. "This has gone beyond the issue of mean-spirited politicians. It is highly unethical." Despite the CEO's earlier comments, RSL issued a statement Friday saying officials would not comment on The Tribune's copy of the document. They say it was "obtained illegally" and that the team will pursue "every legal recourse" against the leaker.
Corroon also issued a statement saying he believes in the 'appeal" process and that he is disappointed the information was leaked.
Howes added: "From my knowledge, this has never happened in a public-private partnership in the history of Utah. It is a business document. The minute businesses cannot trust government . . ."
