Boring or beautiful? Depends on your perspective. And, to be sure, there is nuance to both.

But as Real Salt Lake breaks open its books today - after months of prodding - accountants, venture capitalists and good-government types agree the simple question becomes: Does RSL have the bucks?

The following is a primer on the probe soon to be launched by the county's Debt Review Committee (DRC), which must give a thumbs up or down on the team's $100 million Sandy stadium.

To wit: Does the two-year-old franchise have enough cash to carry its debt service over several decades? How reliable are the investors? And what protection do taxpayers have that they won't be tapped for more than the $55 million already planned for land and infrastructure?

As they weigh whether to rally behind RSL, Joe NFL and Susan The Soccer Mom also may want to watch the following: Who owns the land? What other events are planned for the 20,000-seat soccer palace? And can they afford tickets?

A deluge of answers, not unlike a shootout, should finally dribble out this week. But, first, the questions:

Does the deal

make sense?

Mark Crockett, a venture-capital consultant considered a fiscal firebrand on the County Council, says the gambit boils down to the safety and return on the public investment.

"Is there enough capital in the business? Or are they going to be skating on the edge?" he asks. "How deep are the pockets of the league and of the team?"

Like any due-diligence review, Crockett says RSL's assets after liabilities as well as its earnings and losses need to pencil out.

Team owner Dave Checketts has said Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs has agreed to back the stadium, pledging $25 million from its Whitehall Funds and lining up lenders for the balance.

But county Treasurer Larry Richardson, a DRC member, says that alone does not ensure viability.

"Is the team going to survive and be successful for a long period?" he asks. "Certainly, management and equity - capital - is a big part of it. How committed are the owners to housing a team in Sandy?"

Still, for county Mayor Peter Corroon, it comes down to backing. "We want to know who their investors are."

What do number

crunchers

consider?

In a word, everything.

Corroon already has hired an independent consultant to focus on the financials.

Next, Richardson says, the DRC will scrutinize all the numbers - from revenue projections and costs to ticket sales, concessions and volunteers. Past probes - such as the aquarium and children's museum - took between four months and a year. This one has to be swifter.

"We challenge the assumptions," Richardson says. "We will try to get comparable data from all around the country."

Darrin Casper, the county's chief financial officer who also sits on the DRC, says the panel will deconstruct RSL's records with "painstaking detail."

"They're going to give us a pro forma that shows they are thriving in five years and making lots of cash," he says. "Those assumptions need to be tested."

What about

projected

profitability?

No matter what RSL releases, Crockett suggests the team faces a "delicate dance."

If revenues seem to soar, he says, critics will question the need for public aid. If they sag, county leaders will question whether they can afford to support the stadium deal.

"They can probably engineer this to look however they want," Crockett says. "They should probably organize it somewhere where it's not too high and not too low, and just right for public funding."

The trick: Does the team tag its profits and losses on the club? On the stadium? On the real estate? And, Crockett wonders, when does the cash come back into county coffers? And how many creditors come before taxpayers?

"It's a risky venture," Casper says.

What if soccer

in Sandy sinks?

Despite delays - and a secretive call for a confidentiality agreement - team officials insist they always intended to unveil RSL's financial records.

Last week, team CEO Dean Howes called the deal "one of the best public-private partnerships ever created for a stadium project, anywhere in America."

But DRC members are paid to be pessimists. And, starting in January, before making a nonbinding recommendation to Corroon, the committee plans to weigh the pluses and, especially, the minuses.

"There needs to be an exit strategy," Casper says. "If they go out of business, what are we stuck with?"

Casper says the biggest question after gauging whether RSL's revenue is realistic, is how much collateral taxpayers will get.

They won't have to wait long. The clues come out today.

djensen@sltrib.com