But that will be up to the new Major League Soccer team.

The mayor called Presiding Bishop H. David Burton earlier in the day to update the high-ranking church official about the city's bid for a $60 million, 22,000-seat stadium to house Real Salt Lake.

While church officials declined to comment Friday, Anderson said Burton "clearly indicated to me that the LDS Church is very excited about having the soccer stadium in the downtown area."

By month's end, Real plans to announce if the stadium will go in Salt Lake City or Murray. For the first two seasons, the team will play at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium, starting in April.

A day after The Salt Lake Tribune reported Anderson was looking to place a stadium on the block between Main Street and West Temple and 600 South and 700 South, more details about the proposal emerged.

The city may fund a TRAX station at 700 South and Main Street - right at the doorstep of the proposed stadium, which also would host conventions, concerts and youth sports. And the city may construct a public parking garage nearby that would cater to stadium goers as well as others wanting to park and ride TRAX.

Anderson envisions a parking terrace with retail on the ground floor and housing above. He will present a final proposal to Real by Jan. 15.

The 10-acre block on the southern edge of downtown was one of three sites the city investigated. The city's Redevelopment Agency is expected to buy the land - and this parcel is more expensive than the other two blocks near The Gateway, Anderson said, though he declined to disclose a purchase price. It will cost another $60 million to $65 million to build the stadium, and Salt Lake County taxpayers may pay half of that tab through increased property taxes.

Anderson said he didn't anticipate the city would condemn property for the stadium, but added, "it's always a possibility."

Hotelier Earl Holding owns most of the block in question. His spokesman, Clint Ensign, said the stadium is "something that we're looking into."

The city rejected putting a stadium near Gateway because that neighborhood is booming on its own. The area around 600 South needs help, though there are several hotels there including Holding's Grand America and Little America. Anderson said there could be a symbiotic relationship, with stadium events providing hotel guests something to do and the hotel providing stadium spectators a place to stay.

"It's an area right now that's not thriving," City Council Chairman Dale Lambert said, adding that he may not vote to buy the block because he opposes subsidizing the stadium construction, though he wants Real to succeed.

The city's stadium proposal "needs more of a development plan than simply we drop a stadium here and everything else springs up. I don't think [redevelopment of the neighborhood] is automatic," Lambert said.

Murray has a strong proposal, too. The stadium would be part of a 100-acre redevelopment at about 4400 South, surrounded by high-density housing, offices, shops, restaurants and other services. It is near the freeway and a light rail station. Major League Soccer teams in other cities have favored sites with such massive redevelopment plans.

Salt Lake City's plan "is a pigeon-hole deal. You've got that amount of acreage, period," said Murray Mayor Dan Snarr. "In Murray, you can bring together a whole environment in which the retail, the housing can play off the soccer stadium. We have, at the end of the day, something to offer that allows them to go beyond the scope of just plotting down a soccer stadium."

Utah Transit Authority spokesman Justin Jones said UTA left space to build a TRAX platform at 700 South and Main Street when it constructed the north-south line. He said it would be up to the city to fund the station, much like the city's Redevelopment Agency is spending $1.2 million build a station at 900 South and 200 West. That one will open by summer's end.

"It [a 700 South stop] was planned [for] when the demand is there," Jones said. "With car dealerships surrounding it, there's no demand for a stop."

hmay@sltrib.com