Such is the language that now labels Real Salt Lake's terribly twisted saga to score a Major League Soccer stadium somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley.

Tired of the whole charade?

Executives of the team and the politicians who hold the public purse strings certainly are.

Call it Real exhaustion. Like the searing summer sun, it continues to cloak the Wasatch Front.

"I don't know at what point everyone has soccer fatigue and says, 'This is it,' " says Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson.

Wilson, county Mayor Peter Corroon and others have bolted town for the holiday weekend and are enjoying some R&R (reprieve from Real).

Neither RSL owner Dave Checketts nor CEO Dean Howes has engaged either, saying they need a "breather."

But the timing of the burnout seems curious, considering RSL has imposed an Aug. 12 deadline to resolve the stadium quandary before unloading the team.

Perhaps Utah County, Rochester, N.Y., or St. Louis really are in the cards.

To salvage a Salt Lake Valley option, Councilman Jim Bradley argues insiders need to involve the people and "wash away all the machinations, all the schemes, all the variations on themes."

"I'd love to hear the public come forward and say, 'Here's what we think and here's why,' " Bradley says. "We ought to afford them that opportunity before we cross the Rubicon."

Corroon and a handful of council members have called for putting the stadium question before voters since proposals began to bubble last year. But team officials, wary of public-opinion polls showing opposition to taxpayer financing, call that a last resort.

"We'll entertain all materially strong options," Howes says. "What got lost in the commotion was that we have been told repeatedly by the county what doesn't work. We're waiting for the leadership from the mayor's office to tell us what does work."

Doug Willmore, chief administrative officer for the county, says the team has yet to extend "an olive branch to anyone here" after a string of scripted radio attacks from Checketts in which he called county leaders "dysfunctional" and Corroon "the King of England."

"We haven't spent any time on anything and just assume it's done for now," Willmore says.

From the airwaves to the blogosphere, the standoff has been characterized as a game of chicken. But one thing is certain: Virtually everyone claims to be worn out by the issue.

Meanwhile, just days after the council dashed RSL's dreams of a Sandy stadium by a 5-4 vote, some council members concocted what they call "a phoenix-from-the-ashes proposal."

It calls for giving the team $23 million in hotel taxes, rather than $30 million, as well as letting the county issue the bond and keep the parking revenue.

Sandy is reviewing the offer. The response from RSL has been underwhelming.

"I really don't have anything to say," Checketts says. "No one from Real has seen it, and we don't know anything about it."

However, Checketts did say "at least there are ideas being exchanged."

Councilman Mark Crockett says before a deal can be broached, officials must strip the real estate bells and whistles - RSL and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan envisioned a $650 million super-development in the shadow of the stadium - and start talking exclusively about soccer.

"These aren't a bunch of quarters running around looking for a storm drain," he says.

Council insiders now suspect pork-barrel politics plunged the stadium into chaos. One faction wanted the millions in leftover tax dollars for a downtown Salt Lake City arts district, while another, including those up for re-election, wanted countywide projects.

"That kind of parochial self-interest is one of the things that is damaging to this community and is extremely tragic," says Councilman Joe Hatch, who nonetheless concedes fighting for the downtown cash.

"Damn right I am."

Back at the County Government Center, council staff has been wading through David Wilde's "thank you's" and "go to hells" after the councilman's swing vote that scuttled the suburban stadium earlier this month.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber still is smarting over the vote and insists "soccer is being held to a very different standard."

"We want to find out what factors conspired against the team," he says.

In the meantime, Wilde says he is loath to change his mind unless funding for a stadium first is approved by voters at the ballot box.

Part of his obstinacy: being lashed by lobbyists and criticized continuously by Checketts.

"There's just been too much water under the bridge," Wilde says. "I just get the sense there's not much appetite to carry on the fight much longer."

djensen@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporter Heather May contributed to this story.

Q & A

Is the prospect of a soccer stadium in Sandy dead?

Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan said as much after this month's Salt Lake County Council vote. However, city officials are mulling a fledgling offer from the county that reduces the county's portion of hotel tax from $30 million to $23 million. Insiders suggest Dolan also could bypass the county and go directly to his friends at the Legislature to secure hotel-tax money for stadium infrastructure.

If the stadium doesn't go to Sandy, where might it end up in Utah?

The list of possibilities keeps growing. Developers have offered to give Real Salt Lake property - as well as buy the team - at the now-defunct Geneva Steel in Utah County. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and his City Council still are pushing the Utah State Fairpark. Main Street options seem out of reach, but others are examining a couple of sites west, north and south of The Gateway. County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson would like to extend RSL's time at the University of Utah, but the team insists Rice-Eccles won't work past 2007.

Could RSL leave the state?

Yes. Team owner Dave Checketts concedes RSL's future in Utah is in "serious jeopardy." Still, he says he is committed to exploring all options in the Beehive State before making that leap. And, if RSL leaves, it won't be Checketts packing up a Ryder truck. He says he would sell the team before moving it. But Checketts' deadline to prevent that from happening is fast approaching: Aug. 12, the day of the hotly anticipated Real Madrid exhibition game.