It may be the last gasp for a Sandy venue.

RSL still hasn't responded to the county about a fledgling offer of $23 million in hotel taxes for a suburban stadium - team CEO Dean Howes said in an interview Monday he had no comment on the plan - and that silence is turning off some county leaders.

"The county is negotiating with itself," Councilman Joe Hatch lamented. "Usually, that's not a recipe for positive action."

In an even more negative note for RSL, Councilman David Wilde - seen as a swing vote - warned Monday that before he could endorse any soccer plan, it would have to be placed on the ballot and approved by voters.

"I feel like I'd be betraying my trust to turn around and vote on the 'yes' side," he said. "I'd be willing to let the public decide. That's as far as I'm willing to go."

The trouble for RSL is that polls repeatedly have shown overwhelming opposition to public funding for a private stadium.

Wilde added that he grew weary of RSL owner Dave Checketts' tongue-lashing, including references to Mayor Peter Corroon as "the King of England" and the council as "completely dysfunctional."

He also took exception to Checketts' "sarcastic" missive, fired off Friday before the new offer came to light, that suggested the team did not want to waste any more of the county's "valuable government time."

Councilman Randy Horiuchi suggested the RSL owner is "smarting still," and that the silence is "still a reaction of Dave Checketts' meltdown."

RSL might also be waiting to see where Corroon comes down on the $23 million proposal - which calls for the county to issue the bond, own the stadium land and pocket the parking revenue - before commenting on it.

If that is the strategy, it may not be helping the team's case.

"Until they're interested in talking, I'm not willing to put a lot more time into it," Councilwoman Jenny Wilson said.

Council Chairman Cort Ashton, who helped craft the new stadium proposal, said Monday that he has had no conversations with "anybody from Real."

"I'm hoping they're just in a wait-and-see."

Ashton said the olive-branch offer - requiring $7 million less in hotel taxes than a plan the council rejected last week in a 5-4 vote - probably would pass the Debt Review Committee and preserve the county's coveted triple-A bond rating.

Ashton hopes that prospect is enough to sway a second swing voter - Marv Hendrickson, who could not be reached Monday for comment.

But Hatch, who proffered last week's doomed stadium plan, worries that the harsh words since that vote have soured any chance at a compromise.

"This issue has been so politicized and so polarized," he said, "it's going to be difficult for it to pass."

djensen@sltrib.com

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Tribune reporter Heather May contributed to this story.

Utah firm offers to buy RSL.

If Real Salt Lake decides to bolt from Utah, buyers are lining up from Rochester, N.Y., to St. Louis to Portland, Ore.

Now, another, in Utah County.

"If Dave Checketts is interested in selling the team, we would be interested in buying the team," said Michael Hutchings, a partner in Sandy-based Anderson Development, which owns the former Geneva Steel site in Vineyard. "We're crunching numbers right now."

Last week, Anderson Development offered RSL land near Utah Lake for free, noting the acreage offers plenty of room for parking near three freeway offramps. Hutchings says Checketts may be coming to Utah to discuss the Utah County offer later this week.

RSL also has a revised offer from Salt Lake County to place the stadium in Sandy with $23 million in hotel taxes, but has not responded.

"We've made a better offer," Hutchings says, "because it involves no public money."

- Derek P. Jensen