Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan and Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis are determined to use county money that had been allocated for a parking structure at the South Towne Expo Center to help build a soccer stadium for Real Salt Lake, the Major League Soccer franchise, in Sandy. This strikes us as underhanded.

Why? Because it is a bait and switch.

The Legislature, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and Sandy negotiated for months over a funding plan to expand the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake City and build a new parking structure for the Expo Center in Sandy. Though the debate played out through much of the Legislature's general session early this year and a special session last month, the soccer stadium was not part of the public discussions.

Now, suddenly, Dolan and Curtis, who represents a Sandy district, have hatched a plan to build a surface parking lot for the Expo Center and use the balance of the $20 million that would have paid for a parking garage to help build the soccer stadium. The surface parking lot would serve both the stadium and the Expo Center.

Here's the kicker: Sandy doesn't have to put up any of the money.

This annoys officials of Salt Lake City, who were obliged to put up $8 million toward the Salt Palace expansion. (Because the capital city reaps the economic benefits of convention visitors to the Salt Palace, Salt Lakers should not complain too loudly.)

But that same logic has not been applied to Sandy, home of the Expo Center, which so far is not on the hook for a dime. Granted, the two convention facilities are different in that the Salt Palace now attracts mostly out-of-state visitors, while the Expo Center caters to shows that draw mostly Utahns. But they both are economic engines for their respective cities.

What rightly galls Salt Lakers, though, is that their city and Murray are competing with Sandy to land the new soccer stadium. Giving Sandy an edge by using public money everyone thought was intended for convention facilities isn't cricket.

There should be an even playing field for the cities competing for this playing field.