Murray Leader in Stadium Race

[dysko]

Murray has a lead... according to the SL Tribune.

Lets no leave out the Des News...Cities Fight for Stadium

[SoccerPrime]

I love it that both cities are fighting for the rights to the soccer stadium.

This has got to be a first in US soccer history.

Only in Utah! :D

[Jim Umber]

We all know that Dave Checketts wants it to be in Downtown. It even says so in the article. So this is probably a bargaining move to get SLC to sweeten the pot. They're saying, "Give us your best offer. If it's not good enough we're going to Murray."

[Neil]

I agree with Jim, I think this is a way to push SLC to sweeten the deal somehow.

[Rocky J Squirrel]

Good Newspaper articles!!

Have you sent your appreciation?

Who recieves the benifits of a Downtown Stadium? Downtown claims they will. The Mayor claims Downtown will. Tax payers must pay for an extra $15,000,000 (or more) in addition to the community subsidy of $30,000,000 (but that may be considered a bonded investment).

The only way Downtown makes money sense to the Soccer Club is for the following to happen:
1) Sinclair Oil takes an Equity Position in the Stadium Ownership LLC. In other words they give the land, for a 20 to 40% share of the stadium ownership.
2) Mark Miller trades his land/dealership for in kind advertising tie-in at the stadium or in team promotions.
3) SLC buys/condems the rest of the block under Redevelopment Project, then sells it to the Stadium Ownership LLC.
4) SLC builds a Parking Garage with a bridge to the stadium, again with Redevelopment Agency authority and finances it with Industrial Development Bonds (or similar methods).
5) Makes an irrevocable commitment by the end of January. Has deal done and dirt moving by April 2006.
6) The Downtown Alliance and the Mayor's Discresionary fund writes a BIG check that will cover the cost differnces still around. They are only investing in their own benifits!

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by Rocky J Squirrel

Good Newspaper articles!!

Have you sent your appreciation?

Who recieves the benifits of a Downtown Stadium? Downtown claims they will. The Mayor claims Downtown will. Tax payers must pay for an extra $15,000,000 (or more) in addition to the community subsidy of $30,000,000 (but that may be considered a bonded investment).

The only way Downtown makes money sense to the Soccer Club is for the following to happen:
1) Sinclair Oil takes an Equity Position in the Stadium Ownership LLC. In other words they give the land, for a 20 to 40% share of the stadium ownership.
2) Mark Miller trades his land/dealership for in kind advertising tie-in at the stadium or in team promotions.
3) SLC buys/condems the rest of the block under Redevelopment Project, then sells it to the Stadium Ownership LLC.
4) SLC builds a Parking Garage with a bridge to the stadium, again with Redevelopment Agency authority and finances it with Industrial Development Bonds (or similar methods).
5) Makes an irrevocable commitment by the end of January. Has deal done and dirt moving by April 2006.
6) The Downtown Alliance and the Mayor's Discresionary fund writes a BIG check that will cover the cost differnces still around. They are only investing in their own benifits!

Two questions for you mate...
Where do you get your information? Do you make this shtuff up? 😕

I went off on a tirade about this post but I have deleted that part and I have just decided to let it go!
I will be happy with the stadium wherever it is built and it is not in my job description to defend/promote either location... RSL, SLC and Murray have all the ppl they need to do that for us!

cheers... the debates were fun but I can't compete with these scenarios... because I actually live on this planet!

[Czar Jake]

I have no clue how any of the money works, not enough to argue with Rocky (Squirrel, not Anderson :p ) and not enough to know whether his statements are right or wrong or anywhere in between. I just want a downtown stadium because I think the atmosphere will be 34982 times better than out in Murray. If that means I have to pay a few extra bucks in taxes, fine. I don't know if that is the case and I don't care.

Bottom line: Down town stadium would be amazing. But I too will be happy with a stadium anywhere.

[Deuce]

Sorry I just couldn't leave it alone...
This is a newspaper article from Kansas City about the benefit of Soccer Specific Stadiums... (I put a large quote here because some of you may not want to register with the site to read the entire article... You can read it here if you can't be bothered to do that!)

This actually addresses some of the Cost/Benefit Scenarios mentioned in other posts!

Whatever your preference... it is a good deal for EITHER city!

Major League Soccer fiercely guards its earnings and losses, so it's hard to say exactly how much the Wizards have lost through the years. Most estimates, however, put the number at between $1 million and $2 million a year.

That's less than the Los Angeles Galaxy was losing at the Rose Bowl. But the Galaxy opened a soccer-specific stadium, the Home Depot Center, in 2003, and their financial situation turned around. LA, which lost $3.5 million in its last season at the Rose Bowl, made a profit of $150,000 in its first year at its new home.

Not exactly heady numbers, but when you're bleeding money, any profit is significant.

The Columbus Crew was the first team to open its own stadium, in 1999, and the financial impact was considerable, said former general manager Jamey Rootes.

. . . “If you have a new facility, you have a new pouring-rights opportunity for soda, you have a new banking category opportunity, a new beer opportunity, new automobile opportunity, new naming-rights opportunities. That can create significant financial gains, as was demonstrated by the Home Depot Center.”

So finances are the obvious benefit, but there's much more to a soccer-specific stadium.

“It's not only economic, it's the environment, it's the playing surface, it's the fan experience, it's the identity that comes with a stadium, it's the permanency of a stadium,” said Simon Borg, director of media relations for Major League Soccer. “It's all those factors rolled into one. … It's the demand for tickets that's created. It's so many things.”

. . .

The Wizards' average attendance this season of 14,816 probably would have been better had they not averaged 8,076 in their two Wednesday games. They had home games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this season and have played past road playoff games on Tuesday and Thursday, a common problem for teams that don't have their own stadiums.

“It's hard selling season tickets when we have games at so many different times and days,” MetroStars general manager Nick Sakiewicz told USA Today a few years back. “With a new stadium we would have more control on when we play, creating a destination day and time for games.”

. . .

In MLS, size matters, and bigger isn't better. It's the one thing everyone in MLS — league officials, coaches, players, fans — agrees on. Cavernous Arrowhead Stadium gobbles up even a big soccer crowd.

“To be in a 70,000-seat facility and there are only 15,000 or 20,000 people there makes you ask the question: ‘Is everyone crazy, or is it me?' ” Rootes said. “But if you're in a 20,000-seat stadium and there are 20,000 people, like basketball, you say, ‘Wow, what a huge success.'

“It's all a matter of your perspective. That's what a downsized facility does. It gives intimacy to the game, and intimacy helps create atmosphere, and when you create atmosphere, that instills excitement and energy, and when you have excitement and energy, people want to come back.”

A smaller stadium also creates a shortage of tickets, which is not a bad thing.

When teen star Freddy Adu visited this summer, did anyone wonder whether tickets would be available at 80,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium? Doubtful, but had the Wizards been playing at a 20,000-seat facility, tickets for the game may have been a hot commodity.

. . .

The answer would be a soccer-specific stadium with adjoining youth fields. A 2002 task force found that such a complex could result in annual economic activity of $45 million, support more than 1,000 jobs and generate $3.5 million in local and state tax revenues.

:p

[Jim Umber]

Excellent, Deuce. I always enjoy statistics so much more when they support my preconceived ideas. :D

[dysko]

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