Will a proposed soccer stadium be the savior for one of them?
Murray and Salt Lake City officials hope so and are competing to spend $5 million to $15 million on land to persuade Real Salt Lake to build a publicly subsidized, $60 million, 22,000-seat sports venue on their site. City leaders contend the facility can help one of their broken neighborhoods rebound the way - to mix sports metaphors - Mehmet Okur's buzzer-beating basket last week renewed hope for the faltering Jazz.
Residents may feel good cheering on their new Major League Soccer team in a brand-new stadium. But will they spend money outside the venue at new restaurants and shops or buy new condos - all predicted to open around the stadium?
Stadium studies throughout the country say no, unless the stadium is part of a broader redevelopment plan that includes projects such as retail, museums and offices. Without wider uses, the city won't see much return on its subsidy: The typical soccer fan pays for a game ticket and some concessions and then returns home.
Planners in Murray and Salt Lake City say they aren't relying on the "Field of Dreams" theory. Murray is eyeing a 99-acre mixed-use development with the stadium as an anchor. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson envisions redeveloping three blocks, about 30 acres, surrounding a stadium with mixed-use developments and a public parking garage. Both plans would require further use of public money.
"It doesn't just happen organically - all of these other restaurants and light retail and downtown housing - that doesn't occur on its own just because someone builds a stadium," says Daniel Rasher, director of the University of San Francisco's Sport Management Program and a private sports economics consultant.
Even more sobering: Rasher's research on where Major League Soccer should expand, to be published in the International Journal of Sport Management, ranks the Salt Lake City area market poorly. Based on a variety of factors including income levels, population growth and percentage of Latino residents, Real Salt Lake "will likely struggle to find a fan base."
However, the team has a higher chance of success if it has a soccer stadium so it can keep more of the revenue, Rasher says. (RSL also says it can succeed because Utah boasts the highest levels of youth soccer participation per capita in the United States and Salt Lake County's Latino population - 13.5 percent in the latest census estimate - is swelling.)
RSL could end up permanently playing near 4400 South and Main Street in Murray or on the block between 600 South and 700 South from Main Street to West Temple in Salt Lake City.
Here's what the stadium could - or couldn't - do for either city:
Murray
New life.
That's what a stadium could mean to Murray and an area that is now a spattering of weeded fields, a handful of homes, a couple of car dealerships, an LDS Church-owned thrift store and cannery and a few other buildings.
"There are opportunities to bring that area back to life in a grand style," Murray Mayor Dan Snarr says. "[The stadium] can become an absolute, incredible economic driver."
For Snarr, the stadium is another huge steppingstone in the central Salt Lake Valley community's attempt to "reinvent" itself. Murray made development waves when it landed a $362 million medical complex that will be the centerpiece of Intermountain Health Care's system. The hospital will be the largest in the region and construction already has prompted a frenzy of commercial development nearby with even more businesses and restaurants eager to find space there.
The stadium could do the same 10 blocks to the north, Snarr argues. And, as with the hospital site, Murray is eyeing a large tract - 99 acres to be exact - to house not only a stadium but also housing, stores and offices near the 4500 South light-rail station.
Murray has been cautioned a stadium may not match up with the true transit-oriented development the City Council craves for the area. And while existing businesses are willing to listen to the city's plans, some are not ready to move.
"We're real happy with our location there," said Rich Waller, an owner of Advanced Foam Plastics, which operates a production plant on about 5 acres near the center of the property. The facility added 30,000 square feet in 2000.
A soccer stadium doesn't necessarily mean the company would relocate, Waller added in an interview from the company's corporate offices in Denver.
"If they put a soccer stadium across the street, I don't see that as forcing us to move," he said. "The two concepts are not incompatible."
The company is willing to listen to any development pitch for their land, though.
Murray remains in the middle of a process to create a Redevelopment Agency district for the area.
Salt Lake City
Bar tabs run low at Iggy's Sports Grill between college basketball's March Madness and the thick of the Major League Baseball season. Bar manager Bill Genebach hopes to see more customers if a soccer stadium - with games kicking off in April - opens a block to the east. "[If] they're going to be playing there, I think we can promote it. We can do really good business."
More than boosting the coffers of existing businesses, city officials hope a stadium can bring new cachet to a downtrodden neighborhood. Far removed from the relative flurry of activity on downtown's northern end - the two malls are being overhauled - the southern end has flagged.
Kitty-corner from the stadium block sits Sears. Some in the city hope its owners will update the store into a Sears Grand, bringing a much-needed grocery store downtown and giving the sterile facade a face-lift.
A stadium-related parking garage the city might build could include housing and retail. And city could add a TRAX station at 625 S. Main St.
Perhaps the only developer in the area that matters is Earl Holding. The hotel and resort owner controls 47.5 acres on the southern end of downtown, including most of the block where Salt Lake City wants to place the stadium and that Holding has agreed to sell.
Holding - whose former LDS bishop is Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts - has developed about half of his property with the Little America and Grand America hotels. The rest, mainly vacant parking lots, are gaping holes in the streetscape.
Venessa Vetica, manager of Millcreek Coffee Roasters, would like to see housing, retail and other uses surrounding a stadium. There is no foot traffic at night, save from vagrants. But an invigorated district is difficult to picture.
"That's all up to Earl Holding," Vetica said. "Unless [he] lets go of his buildings and allows something more creative in, I don't know what else . . . there would be."
But even with the prospect of a multimillion-dollar stadium nearby, Holding is not ready to commit to further redevel- opment.
His spokesman, Clint Ensign, says the only plan is to add parking and greenery to his empty lots. "It's hard to say what type of new development activity will come from the new stadium. It obviously will have an impact. People are waiting to see and to find out more [about] what is going to happen."
As for the two empty lots Holding owns north of his hotels - critical to connecting the north and south ends of town - "the city is not yet ready for that development."
Risky business
Major League Soccer is undergoing a building frenzy. Two soccer-specific stadiums exist and another five are under construction in the 12-team league. All promise to be economic boons.
Lance Burkholder, business-development manager for Carson, Calif., credits the Los Angeles Galaxy's new stadium - the Home Depot Center - for increasing sales at surrounding restaurants and luring a Target and a 24 Hour Fitness center to a nearby mall. It also has brought the city "unbelievable press that's associated with something good that you couldn't pay for."
That rosy picture may not be a good comparison. The Galaxy's home is part of a $150 million sports complex that includes a tennis stadium, track-and-field venue and an indoor track for bicycle races. San Diego's Petco Park, built for the Padres baseball team, is touted as a success for its neighborhood. But the city forced development to take place, paying $300 million for the stadium and requiring the Padres owner to pump millions more into developing the ballpark district.
Neither Murray nor Salt Lake City has mentioned such a requirement for the RSL stadium.
Utah has its own examples of stadium-related development, good and bad. West Valley City calls the E Center its "jewel" and credits it for creating an entertainment district of hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and a live theater complex.
"The stadium was an incredible influence on surrounding property," said Joseph Moore, the city's director of economic and community development. "It's hard to measure its effect."
With a light-rail extension - possibly by 2009 - West Valley City has plans for another mixed-used development. But Franklin Covey Field hasn't changed Salt Lake City's largely residential neighborhood at 1300 South and West Temple in the 10 years since it opened.
The Utah Taxpayers Association opposes either city subsidizing the soccer stadium, saying the venue won't generate a net increase in spending.
The money a soccer fan will spend at the stadium or in a restaurant nearby is money he would have spent, say, at a Jazz game, the association says.
Kevin Delaney, a Temple University sociology professor who co-wrote the book Public Dollars, Private Stadiums, believes sports teams have a "cartel power" that pits one city against another to gain more subsidies that may not be worth it in the end.
His advice to Murray and Salt Lake City: "Take a hard look at the dollars and cents and see if it's really worth it. Bargain hard with the team. If you lose the stadium to another place, it won't be the end of the world."
hmay@sltrib.com
jsantini@sltrib.com
Stadium costs
Real Salt Lake expects the home city to pay for the land no matter where the stadium ends up. And the team plans to ask Salt Lake County residents to put $30 million toward construction. The team will pick up the other half.
The stadium is expected to include retail and a TV studio on the ground floor. It would host concerts, community gatherings and other sports events. It is a mix of uses seen at other new Major League Soccer stadiums across the nation.
RSL estimates the stadium will result in 100 new soccer- and media-related jobs, 140 housing units for those employees and other jobs indirectly related to the venue, along with $180 million in new spending.
Murray's pros:
Ninety-nine acres means RSL can choose its location, help select other developments and make room for practice fields.
Centrally located, Murray has access to light rail, Interstate 15 and State Street.
Public opinion may be on Murray's side; valley residents polled in December preferred a stadium in this suburb.
Salt Lake City's pros:
RSL prefers downtown.
While not offering an official position on the stadium location, the LDS Church, a major player in downtown development, supports "efforts that would enhance the appeal and vitality of downtown."
A downtown stadium would be accessible via light rail and I-15.
More than 4,000 hotel rooms within a three-block radius.
What's Next?
Tuesday: Murray will hold a public hearing to determine if the 99 acres in question are blighted, meeting the requirements for the creation of a Redevelopment Agency district. Real Salt Lake is counting on that meeting to gauge public interest in locating the stadium in Murray. It will take place at 5 p.m. at Murray City Hall, 5025 S. State St.
To be determined: RSL will hold a public meeting to vet the Salt Lake City site.
Early February: Real Salt Lake must inform Major League Soccer where it will permanently play.
April: The team debuts at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium, where it will play its first two seasons.
