This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Only last May, Real Salt Lake was regularly winning soccer games and cities were fighting to become the team's permanent home.
We could laugh about how the temporary field at Rice-Eccles Stadium looked as if third-graders had used magic markers to cover the football logos, marvel at the way RSL was performing above expectations for an expansion team and picture the building of a nice, new venue.
Too bad Salt Lake City's glorious Major League Soccer history lasted only a couple of months.
It's all crashing down now. The team is winless this season and Wednesday's news that Salt Lake County will not fund a public share of a new stadium is devastating to RSL's future in town.
True, this is not the best time to be campaigning to keep RSL. When stories were published last week about team officials wanting to keep their records secret, I just figured they wanted to prevent the MLS standings from being printed.
RSL is 0-4-1 this season, winless since early August, and showing only slight improvement. So maybe this team is not worth fighting for, but the franchise is.
If Real relocates, we all will lose.
So it's time to mobilize to keep RSL from leaving. Salt
Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, who said "the numbers just don't work" for taxpayers to help build a stadium in Sandy, must be convinced that his county needs pro soccer. Same with officials in Murray and Salt Lake City, who last year were competing for the team.
That means all these soccer players, soccer moms and soccer dads, whose supposed level of interest in the game was the reason MLS officials wanted to put a franchise here and convinced Dave Checketts to own it, need to start showing up more frequently at Rice-Eccles.
So do a lot of other sports fans, even if they're not especially tuned into soccer.
It's difficult to criticize Corroon and say he should step up, because it's not his money. If he says soccer funding is not "fiscally prudent," he probably knows what he's talking about.
County residents simply have to make it seem prudent - necessary, even - by providing this team off the field what it's lacking on the field: a consistent offensive attack.
This is not just about soccer. Personally, I happily could go on living without attending another MLS game, although I have enjoyed watching RSL play more than I ever imagined. The real issue is I just want the Salt Lake Valley to look and act like a big-time sports market, and soccer was helping to build that image - much like the successful debut of Arena Football.
This is a funny place, in a lot of ways. We have major-league ambitions, but seem to ignore the fact that every pro franchise is a test case.
Here's the deal: You can't have a PGA Tour stop without supporting the Nationwide Tour event. You can't have a big-league baseball team without fully supporting a Triple-A club.
I decided long ago never to criticize fans for not buying tickets. It's a free market and this valley is full of cultural, recreational and entertainment options. I believe in the ballot-by-ballpark idea, where attendance reflects the demand for the sport in that market.
I also realize that Salt Lake City is not a major site for corporate headquarters and other large businesses, and there are only so many advertising and sponsorship dollars to go around.
But if we want more options in the future, we have to pay for the ones we have now. Utah cannot keep losing franchises such as an WNBA team and a Champions Tour golf event and still be considered a big-league player, Jazz or no Jazz.
Checketts has tried hard to make soccer work here, and not just for his own sake. Now that he owns hockey's St. Louis Blues, the former basketball executive is back in the big leagues. To further make his mark in pro sports, he doesn't need RSL to succeed in his home state. But the rest of us do.
Kurt Kragthorpe can be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon dashed RSL's dreams of steering $35 million in hotel taxes to a proposed soccer stadium in Sandy.
It's a major blow to the team, but voters still could approve stadium funding - through a property-tax increase - if lawmakers agree to place the question on November's ballot.
RSL executives are said to 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.
Commentary: Mayor acts decisively to strike down controversial proposal.