Since players have taken to the turf this spring:

* Hoteliers and tourism types have blitzed Salt Lake County leaders with their pitch to reinvest at least a third of an increased hotel tax to promote Utah, rather than use it all on a stadium.

* Sandy officials have maneuvered to kick in a few million more and are wrestling for the right to issue the stadium bond, thereby owning the land.

* County brass quietly have sized up the Legislature, perhaps for a special session run at another quarter-percent hotel-tax increase to cover both the stadium and tourism needs.

RSL wants $45 million in public funds to help anchor a $150 million soccer complex in Sandy. Owner Dave Checketts says construction crews should start digging by August.

As proposed, however, the numbers may run afoul of county and federal financial rules - a potential spike for any soccer deal.

"No matter what the county may want to do, I think the federal structure would stop us," County Treasurer Larry Richardson says about a possible 20- to 30-year tax-exempt bond paid through an extra 1.25 percent hotel tax granted by the 2006 Legislature. The problem, he notes, is that the funding will not flow until 2011, the majority after 2015.

"That's a little alarm bell going off in my mind," he says. "It's a real hurdle."

Richardson, along with other county accountants, points out there is no official proposal from the team - "It has been deathly quiet with regard to Real," says Dave Delquadro, fiscal analyst for the County Council - but reiterate any financial plan must be vetted by the county's Debt Review Committee, led by the District Attorney's Office.

Doug Willmore, the county's chief administrative officer, says the only insulation from risk comes from owning the stadium land. But preliminary proposals that call for $35 million - the remaining $10 million would come from Sandy - in county money with no principal paid until 2011 "violate" the county's internal debt policies, he says.

"It definitely goes against their conservative policies," concedes RSL spokesman Josh Ewing.

Enter Sandy. Behind the scenes, policymakers have bandied a Sandy bond, not subject to market rates, that could be funded by the economic-development arm of newly passed Redevelopment Agency legislation.

Randy Sant, Sandy's economic-development director, says no decision has been reached. It depends, he notes, on the county's willingness and ability to issue a long-term bond.

"If they can't, then I think we'd look for another solution," he says.

Sant did say the suburb will bump its original $7 million tax subsidy up to $10 million.

"If, God forbid, the team would go under, the land would be owned by Sandy," Delquadro says about the prospect of the city issuing the bond. "There's the rub. I'm unaware of any proposal that [Mayor Peter Corroon] has bought off on."

Ewing says exact cost estimates should come soon. But officials on all sides agree they are running out of time because the county approval process could stretch more than two months.

Meanwhile, executives from the Salt Lake Valley Lodging Association and its convention industry argue funneling the hotel tax toward a stadium in effect ties up any future investment in tourism for up to 30 years.

"We are trying to persuade them to be fiscally responsible," Steve Lundgren, lodging association vice president, says about the county. "We get the least amount of return on this."

Both Lundgren and Scott Beck, president of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, met recently with most members of the County Council and Corroon to drive home their point.

Traditionally, Beck says, two-thirds of of the county's tourism budget has gone toward out-of-state promotion, the remaining third to physical improvements.

"We are now going to take all that money and tie it up for 30 years for the south valley Sandy area?" he asks. "That's what is scary from our end of the business."

Both men insist the stadium funding is not the "highest and best use" of tourism dollars and could kill what is left of any 2002 Winter Olympics halo.

"This has been painted by Real as [community redevelopment], but this is one-industry specific," Beck adds. "That's not how good government should operate."

Darrin Casper, the county's chief financial officer, says an appeal to the Legislature for more money has been discussed but is not likely. Still, he says, "we're not going to issue the bond until we know that [Checketts has] his financing arranged."

djensen@sltrib.com

Why the move to Provo?

Executives for Real Salt Lake brag about last summer's World Cup qualifier at Rice-Eccles Stadium as an example of the soccer buzz sweeping into Salt Lake County.

Indeed, it drew more than 40,000 fans, made millions of dollars and is held as a harbinger.

Now, RSL wants to take that game - or any prime-time exhibition for this season - to Provo. So long, University of Utah. Hello, LaVell Edwards Stadium.

"The whole notion that the World Cup is going to BYU . . . that creates another hurdle," says Dave Delquadro, fiscal analyst for the Salt Lake County Council, which must approve the majority of public funding for a soccer-specific stadium - in Sandy. "I, frankly, am puzzled by it."

Team spokesman Josh Ewing explains the move is practical. Provo's stadium has soccer-friendly grass and 20,000 more seats, while the U. has turf.

"That situation underlines the importance of having a stadium that works for soccer," Ewing says.

Some fans aren't so sure.

"I don't like it," a fan wrote the team's online forum. "The traffic getting in and out of the stadium that will not be named is painful."

Most of the 101 posted messages were favorable, though several complained about concessions and traffic.

"I'm fine with it," said Ethan Millard, who has renewed his RSL season tickets.

"I'd drive a lot farther to see Real Madrid."

- Derek P. Jensen and Jacob Santini