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Sandy's slain soccer stadium may have life.
Two days after a funding proposal for the suburban venue was declared dead, Real Salt Lake still isn't ruling it out - along with other suitors such as St. Louis.
"All of our options are open, including our discussions with other cities," team spokesman Eric Gelfand said Wednesday.
State Senate President John Valentine said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and legislative leaders are scrambling to keep RSL in Utah, preferably in Sandy.
"I expect it to come together quickly or not at all," Valentine said, suggesting a deal could come within a week.
Huntsman huddled with Valentine and House Speaker Greg Curtis in a lengthy and detailed meeting Wednesday to discuss soccer options.
They declined to detail their game plan, but it could include salvaging the Sandy stadium by diverting hotel taxes from the county and giving them to a new sports authority, which then would hand over the money to the suburb.
Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan hasn't given up. At a city banquet Tuesday night, he told City Councilman Scott Cowdell that a chance still exists, though the mayor didn't elaborate.
The Sandy revival leaves the prospect of building the stadium at the Utah State Fairpark looking like a long shot. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson canceled an emergency City Council meeting about the plan Wednesday because there was nothing new to discuss.
When asked if he is still pursuing the idea, Anderson said he couldn't say - even though he has been the site's top cheerleader since Monday, when county Mayor Peter Corroon rejected public financing for a Sandy stadium.
Instead, Anderson said: "I'm pursuing MLS in Utah. I am absolutely committed to doing everything we can to put a deal together."
Developers in Utah County continue to seek the stadium for the former Geneva Steel site.
Attorney Michael Hutchings, a co-owner of Sandy-based Anderson Development, said he met for a couple of hours Wednesday with team CEO Dean Howes and CFO Gary Reimer about bringing RSL to the shores of Utah Lake and possibly buying the franchise outright.
"The meeting was very productive," Hutchings said. The proposal is "moving forward."
Hutchings said he plans to huddle with Howes again today and next week with RSL owner Dave Checketts.
The Utah County bid has ties to Curtis, the Sandy Republican who pushed for the stadium in his hometown. Curtis works for Hutchings' law firm and represents Anderson Development on other projects, but has said he has no financial stake in the Geneva site.
Another Salt Lake City option once floated would put the stadium downtown north of The Gateway on property owned by Gastronomy.
Company owner Tom Guinney said Wednesday that he has not spoken with the team about the land. "We do have a great location for soccer in Salt Lake City downtown. We tried to put this together about six months ago, but it didn't fly."
When asked if he had any hope of his property being a possibility, he said: "I'm not qualified to have an opinion on that."
Meanwhile, MLS sources say Checketts has received clearance from the league to explore relocating his two-year-old franchise and possibly selling it to "serious" investors in St. Louis.
Salt Lake City's mayor referred to such a possible sale as reason to cancel Wednesday's council meeting. "Mr. Checketts may have sold the team by this afternoon," Anderson said. The mayor also didn't want to discuss soccer in public, saying the news media could "screw things up for us."
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* Tribune reporters ROSEMARY WINTERS and TODD HOLLINGSHEAD contributed to this story