The move not only jeopardizes turbulent stadium talks, but also threatens to torpedo the deal itself.

Without the financial details, ''the entire stadium would be at stake,'' Doug Willmore, the county's chief administrative officer, warned Thursday.

The disclosure dispute marks the latest and perhaps steepest hurdle in the plan to erect a 20,000-seat soccer-specific venue, which needs at least $55 million in public money to get off the now-frozen ground.

RSL officials could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Other signs that the precarious pact may be imploding are sprinkled throughout a series of letters and e-mails - including an allegation of "cowardly, wild, irresponsible, unethical accusations" about Willmore - sent between the stakeholders and obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune through an open-records request.

"Not sending all of your financial data to the DRC [Debt Review Committee], I think, will ensure a negative recommendation from the DRC to the mayor," Willmore wrote to the team's financial adviser this week. "Absent that information, our process will be stopped."

On Oct. 5, the county's Debt Review Committee sent a letter to RSL requesting the financials. Five days later, at a Rotary meeting in downtown Salt Lake City, Checketts told The Tribune, "we have all the financial reports that they need."

Addressing the group - which included Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan - Checketts went on to say Wall Street heavyweight Goldman Sachs had agreed to back the stadium, investing $25 million from its Whitehall Funds and finding lending for the remainder of the $100 million project.

Now, nearly two months after Checketts' pledge, Deputy District Attorney Jerry Campbell, who serves as the DRC chairman, still has no details.

"To this date, the DRC has not received the financial documents," Campbell wrote to Checketts on Tuesday.

Two weeks earlier, New York investment banker David Kerschner, an RSL financial adviser, wrote to Willmore and referred to a "nondisclosure statement" to be signed with Economics Research Associates (ERA), a Los Angeles-based consulting firm hired by the county to do the financial review.

In a letter to ERA principal Jeffrey Cohen, Willmore wrote, "please ensure, though, that we are not included in the confidentiality agreement. As a public agency, any documents we receive may be classified as public documents."

And Willmore and Campbell insist county number crunchers must see those financial documents to determine the team's solvency.

"They're not just going to rely on a study [from ERA]," Willmore said. "That's not acceptable."

RSL threatened to sue earlier this year when the team's revenue projections were leaked to reporters.

Gavin Anderson, another deputy district attorney, sounded exasperated at the latest impasse. "It's only $60 million," he shrugged, facetiously.

So why the delay?

Insiders note the closing on RSL's purchase of the Ardell Brown RV lot - a key parcel for the stadium near 9400 S. State St. - has been pushed back to April. That delay may signal RSL first will fish for more money at the Legislature, which will wrap up the 2007 session weeks earlier.

Dolan is leading a charge to allow cities to keep restaurant-tax revenue, which the Utah Taxpayers Association views as a way to help RSL.

"This appears to be an attempt by Sandy City to find another means to subsidize Real Salt Lake's soccer stadium," Vice President Mike Jerman said on the association's Web site.

If that happens, it may endanger funding support from the County Council, which tentatively approved the plan in a 5-4 vote last summer pending a successful debt review. Come January, the council will gain a new member who is leery of steering taxes toward a soccer venture without financial due diligence.

"For a public-private partnership to work, both sides have to show their deck of cards," Councilman-elect Jeff Allen said. "This is problematic and worrisome. It needs to be raised as a big red flag."

Another barrier: the war of words - or awkward silence - between Willmore and RSL Chief Executive Officer Dean Howes.

On Monday, Willmore fired a letter to Howes saying "someone has been going around town making false (cowardly, wild, irresponsible, unethical) accusations about me and attributing them to you."

The "defamatory things," include charges that Willmore "breaks his word; lies; is out to kill soccer in Utah; and other accusations."

"Unless I've seriously overestimated you, I don't think you'd ever stoop to ad hominem tactics, especially behind someone's back," the letter continues.

Willmore has not heard a response from Howes, who reportedly is in New York and could not be reached Thursday night.

Despite the spat, Willmore says he still is willing to negotiate - provided the team shows him the money.

Either way, the latest delay means construction on a stadium, scheduled to take 18 months, may force RSL to find a new venue for the 2008 season.

djensen@sltrib.com