It's a selling point to Rick Frenette, executive director of the Fairpark. He could see the 25,000-seat venue transformed into giant rodeo grounds or a full-time concert venue.

"We are in the event business, and we do lease facilities like that," he said Thursday, a day after Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson publicly suggested the stadium go to the state-owned Fairpark. "At least there are some options for us that a city somewhere else might not have."

The odd offering is part of Anderson's pitch, too. He wondered out loud: If the league folds, what would you do with a stadium in the suburbs? Then he quickly added: "Real is going to be extremely successful."

Team CEO Dean Howes doesn't like talk of the negative. "It's unfair. We have always said we came to this community deliberately, and we're staying in this community. The league is not going to fail."

And while Howes called Sandy's proposal - to put the stadium near the South Towne Expo Center - "wonderful," he was noncommittal about the Fairpark and said the team is letting "community leaders drive the velocity of this decision."

"Rocky's done a very admirable job of moving off [a proposal to place the stadium on] expensive inner-city lands . . . and coming up with an alternative. [The Fairpark] was not in our top choice of locations when we spoke before. But we were talking about downtown locations."

Anderson and Frenette teamed up on a plan to build the stadium on 10 acres of grass on the north side of the fairground's 65 acres. The stadium would abut some of the city's most diverse neighborhoods - and Real is targeting minority residents to become ticket holders. Right now, more of Real's season-ticket holders live closer to the Fairpark than to Sandy.

It would be up to the state's Fairpark Board to accept a stadium, and Frenette says the group wants it.

"When you have 20,000 people coming to the soccer games and other events, they have to drive to the fairgrounds. People [become] aware of it. It doesn't get lost," the director said, adding that the board could possibly use the stadium for concerts during the Utah State Fair.

Frenette has done this before. As director of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, he inked the lease with the MLS Columbus Crew to build a stadium on those fairgrounds in 1999. The Crew leases the land from the state for $50,000 a year and also shares parking revenue. All told, the fair makes $350,000 a year from the soccer stadium.

The Utah State Fairpark needs that kind of money. It is charged to become self-sufficient, but received a $790,000 subsidy from the state this year, even though 300,000 people attend the state fair and the Fairpark hosts another 250 events a year.

In Columbus, the Crew have agreed that if the team folds, the privately financed stadium would revert to the fairgrounds.

In Real's case, the public would own the stadium from the start because the team expects the public to pay half the $60 million to $65 million tab.

Anderson and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan have suggested using sales tax - though in different ways - to construct the stadium. Both plans would require approval from the Legislature, where Dolan has more allies, including House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.

"This will be a real test for the mayor if he can bring this thing to closure," said Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton ChristenÂsen, noting Anderson would also have to convince the City Council on the financing. And the mayor would need to persuade Salt Lake County not to buy land to aid Sandy's bid.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton, who said she is "intrigued" by the Fairpark plan, has faith that Anderson can pull it off. "I believe in miracles."

hmay@sltrib.com