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Real Salt Lake knows defeat.
But the team's record 17-game winless streak is no match for Wednesday's setback, when Utah's Major League Soccer franchise suffered its biggest loss ever - without even taking the field.
In a stunning political power play, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon dashed RSL's dreams of steering $35 million in hotel taxes to a proposed soccer stadium in Sandy.
The blow came as negotiations ground to a crawl amid chatter among county insiders that RSL executives may be negotiating to relocate the team to Phoenix. A move could be necessary, RSL officials have maintained, if they cannot get a soccer-specific stadium in Utah.
Corroon's bold move doesn't necessarily kill soccer in Sandy, but it severely wounds it. Voters still could approve stadium funding - through a property-tax increase - if the County Council or Sandy agreed to place that question on November's already-crowded ballot.
RSL wanted the hotel tax, along with $10 million from Sandy, to buy the land and make infrastructure improvements for its $145 million soccer-and-entertainment complex. The 20,000-seat stadium is a critical cog to RSL's economic survival, according to the team's business plan, recently leaked to The Salt Lake Tribune.
"The numbers just don't work," Corroon said of the RSL proposal, tweaked often since the end of the 2006 Legislature, but not enough to satisfy the first-term mayor. "I'm sure some people will be upset, legislators or otherwise. But for the citizens of the county, we didn't feel it was fiscally responsible."
To do the deal, Corroon said the county would have had to bond for nearly $50 million and would have ended up paying nearly $90 million over the life of the loan. The bulk of the hotel tax could not be collected for nearly 10 years, he emphasized, forcing the county to spend $18 million in upfront interest payments.
"That's wasted money," said Doug Willmore, Corroon's chief administrative officer.
Calls to RSL owner Dave Checketts and Chief Executive Officer Dean Howes were not returned Wednesday. Instead, Howes issued the following statement:
"We are completely focused on our upcoming game this weekend, prior to which we will be hosting a press conference with Dave Checketts and myself to address the stadium issue and answer questions from the media."
That news conference will be either Friday or Saturday.
Reaction from other power brokers and fans was mixed.
"He made the right decision," County Councilman Jim Bradley said about Corroon. "It shows Peter is not making decisions based on special-interest pressures."
Council colleague Joe Hatch suggested the move may get RSL officials "off their duff" and "behaving better."
"A doctoral thesis could be written on how not to get public funding and you could use this as a case study," he said. "The mistakes [RSL] made throughout this thing are legendary."
Hatch did say the team could wait five years to get the county money - RSL hoped to begin construction in August - or give Sandy a chance to find the funding.
That money won't come from a property-tax bond, according to Sandy Councilman Scott Cowdell.
"Sandy City will absolutely not issue a bond as far as I have a say," he said. "I can't see - in the makeup of this City Council - this would happen."
Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan was more hopeful.
"We're still going to work with Real and see what we can do," he said. What Sandy can't do, however, is issue the bond to pay the $45 million tab alone. "We would need the revenue stream to pay for it," Dolan said.
City staffers floated the idea that the county ship the hotel tax money to Sandy and let the city issue a bond. Sandy then would take on the financial liability as well as the political fallout if the team failed.
House Speaker Greg Curtis insists county leaders always were free to decide if the project would pencil out financially. And now that Corroon has said it doesn't?
"I respect that, and I understand that," the Sandy Republican said.
Salt Lake City's hotel-and-convention industry representatives recently ratcheted up their angst over the Sandy stadium proposal. Their preference: Reinvest the tax in tourism.
"It's a responsible decision," said Steve Lundgren, vice president of the Salt Lake Valley Lodging Association. "We applaud Mayor Corroon."
Major League Soccer President Mark Abbott did not discuss specifics of Wednesday's announcement, but said a soccer-specific stadium is "very, very important" to RSL.
Glenn Webb, a season-ticket holder, said Corroon's bombshell could force RSL to work even harder on securing a stadium.
"I don't think it will push the team away," he said. "Checketts is resolved to make it work in his hometown."
Still, several county sources note the Phoenix talk has spread like wildfire. But Howes called a possible move to the Valley of the Sun more rhetoric to fan the flame.
"This is a witch hunt," the team's CEO said Tuesday. "We own this team. We are not selling this team. We are committed to having this team become successful in Salt Lake City."
When asked about a possible move to Phoenix, Howes said, "I am not going to answer that."
Last December, the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston after the MLS team was unable to get a financing agreement for a soccer-specific stadium.
Tax watchdogs in Utah insist such a stadium should be funded entirely by private parties.
"I am more pleased than I can express," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, emphasizing he would like to help RSL rejigger its contract to remain at the Rice-Eccles Stadium. "I applaud Mayor Corroon's judgment and political courage."
Within minutes of Wednesday's announcement, sports talk radio hosts also weighed in. "This is a critical blow to the stadium plans," RSL play-by-play announcer Ryan Hatch said on 1280 The Zone. After talking to RSL officials, who share the same building, Hatch added, "they are absolutely in shock."
County Council members Michael Jensen and Randy Horiuchi were surprised and said Corroon should have consulted them first. But Councilman Mark Crockett argued the sentiment on soccer had shifted in the past few weeks.
"As people started asking the right questions," Crockett said, "the answers became a lot more obvious."
As for possible retributions against the county, Corroon had a ready answer.
"Let the chips fall where they may."
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Tribune reporter Jacob Santini contributed to this story.