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His relationship with that plot of land spans decades. Several, in fact. Dell Loy Hansen hauled sheep from his home in Cache County in the back of his father's 1953 Mercury down Interstate-15 to the Utah State Fairpark fairgrounds near downtown Salt Lake City for the annual state fair. It's an area that remains dear to Hansen's heart — and one that he believes has significant value to the state.

Real Salt Lake's ambitious owner spoke to the Tribune Monday afternoon, a few hours after a joint press release issued from Hansen and the Utah State Fairpark board stated that the two sides had reached terms of agreement to build an 8,000-seat soccer stadium on the fairgrounds. The soccer-specific stadium will — if given the final go-ahead by the Utah State Legislature within the next six weeks — be the home to RSL's USL Pro club, the Real Monarchs who started play this March at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"It's truly a win-win," Hansen said.

The process has been been five months in the making after Hansen made his initial pitch to the Fairpark board in early Sept. 2014, the same day he announced the name of the Monarchs. He said Monday that both sides knew they'd need to tie up relative loose ends before agreeing to terms and signing a term sheet, putting the final push to breaking ground (which would likely come in April, Hansen said) on the legislature. The term sheet agreed upon by both sides includes additional improvements to the Fairpark, including a new entrance on North Temple, more parking, signing and landscaping.

In an analogy he's used before, Hansen said that in ancient times, successful people built cathedrals, nowadays, they build stadiums. He pointed to examples of names around the state like Huntsman and Eccles. After offering to pay $18-to-23 million of his own money for this stadium project, Hansen may be throwing his name in the conversation.

Hansen said he's already expended $300,000 in design development and that the layout for the Fairpark stadium is "fairly established." What comes next is working through the construction drawing phase of planning and then into the construction development stage. The plan is, Hansen explained, is to continue planning vigorously over the next three weeks so in the event of the legislature giving the green light, there won't be lost time.

"If we haven't heard anything positive, maybe we'll start to slow it down," he said, adding that he expects to find out the state's decision by late February or early March.

Fairpark Chairman Roger Beattie also spoke to the Tribune Monday. He said both parties have come quite a long way since initial discussions last year, however for the situation to progress, it needs one final approval.

"What we're lacking now is legislative action," he said. "The bottom line is that there is a current lease on the Fairpark and that expires in a couple years [2017], but for us to conclude this transaction with the Monarchs, we need to have new legislation to pass this."

When asked if he thinks the term sheet signed Monday will help or hinder chance of approval, Beattie said that remains to be seen.

"I certainly would never be presumptuous enough to speak for the state legislature," Beattie explained, "but I would be both very surprised and very disappointed if it did not go forward … to know we have an opportunity to build on this wonderful area in this state is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I know we use that phrase a lot, but that's what this is."

Expect more in the coming weeks as both sides — as well as soccer fans in Utah — await the state's decision.

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani