"I won't let that happen," Huntsman said Thursday. "I have zero intention of buying those acres. That money is better spent somewhere else in terms of public enhancements."
Sandy's proposal would have violated promises made that the $35 million in hotel taxes - allocated by the Legislature in February - would be spent only on the 23 stadium acres, parking and public infrastructure, Huntsman said.
In July, Sandy's economic-development director, Randy Sant, told the City Council, which is negotiating a development agreement with RSL and enforcing the state's terms for the stadium money, that buying the team's entire 29-acre site with the hotel dollars could feed two birds with one seed.
Purchasing those extra 6 acres, slated for a hotel or other commercial development, would make spending the full $35 million easier. And giving the land back to RSL to sell for profit would enable the team to prove to its private investor, iStar Financial, it has the extra $6 million needed for construction.
In short, Sandy could have bought either 23 acres for $20 million or 29 acres for $25 million from RSL - all with county hotel taxes. The latter scheme now is taboo.
"That has now been resolved based on the governor's leadership and direction - which is fine," Sant said Thursday. "This is the state's money, not Sandy City's money. We're just the conduit."
But there won't be a problem spending all the money, Sant said. More of it now could pay for parking. The team has to have 1,000 stalls on-site when the stadium - now under construction - opens in fall 2008. And it must build another 1,000 spaces two years after that.
Huntsman said he would like to see the funds pegged for the 6-acre commercial ground go to a parking structure to be shared with the nearby South Towne Expo Center.
Dean Howes, RSL's chief executive officer, said Huntsman's verdict on the land purchase does not affect the team's business plan. Instead of selling the 6 acres to Sandy first, the team will sell it to a developer - one who proposes a project that would complement the stadium - to pin down the cash needed to complete construction.
"If the question is, 'Is iStar satisfied with what the government is doing,' the answer is 'yes,' " Howes said. "We're still working through the details, but they are well-informed of what the government side is doing."
For the deal to come together, iStar and Sandy have agreed to release funds for the project at the same time. Sandy, which will handle the hotel taxes, has promised to issue the $35 million in bonds by Aug. 27.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon - who twice killed the public-funding pact, deeming it irresponsible - praised Huntsman for doing "due diligence" and "living up to his agreement."
But Corroon remains perplexed about how the governor and Sandy plan to find $35 million worth of public improvements - including land - when county officials identified only $25 million.
"We couldn't find it," he said, "so I don't know how somebody else can find it."
Even so, the county still has a stake in the stadium game. As early as September, Sandy leaders may call on the County Council to relinquish the county's portion of increased property taxes generated by the development to RSL. That figure is estimated near $5 million over 25 years.
Corroon notes the move is being delayed since the necessary five votes do not exist.
Sandy, which has created a Community Development Area around the stadium, has pledged up to $10 million of tax-increment financing to RSL. Sandy's portion of the tax will amount to only $2 million over the next 25 years, so it needs other taxing entities to opt into the project to deliver the dough.
On another element of the deal, Huntsman said he would like to see RSL's elite soccer academy located in Salt Lake City. And, he said, "the Fairpark would be a very good place."
"There's an even-money chance that it winds up in Salt Lake," the governor said.
Still, he is OK with the development agreement requiring only that the academy be built "in Utah." Sandy had slipped in language - it has since been removed - to encourage the academy be built in the suburb.
For six months, the location has been a political football. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson insists plucking it from the capital is akin to deceit, arguing that his city was promised the academy as part of the stadium-funding package.
Jenny Wilson, a county councilwoman and mayoral hopeful, has dropped her support for the stadium deal, partly due to the academy question. And several Democratic legislators, including mayoral candidate Ralph Becker, say they never would have voted for the funding had they known about RSL's slippery stance on the academy.
Huntsman downplayed the controversy.
"The language might have changed," he said. "But I don't know in actual fact that the actual siting is going to change."
In the meantime, Howes said RSL has neither a location selected for the academy nor a formal agreement with Real Madrid to be a financial partner. The team repeatedly touted its ties to the soccer powerhouse when it pitched the academy idea.
While Utah politicians finesse the funding nuances, RSL faces a bigger problem: With one win this season, it is on pace to set the Major League Soccer record for futility.
Huntsman, who says he doesn't follow soccer, insists he won't put conditions on the public funding, regardless of the team's place in the standings or its support at the turnstiles.
"The team will have to build itself into what it needs to be to be viable," he said. "I don't have to worry about professional athletics in that sense."
At the same time, the governor reiterated that RSL faces financial penalties if it goes belly-up. "That should be incentive enough."
rwinters@sltrib.com
djensen@sltrib.com
