RSL STADIUM - LET THE VOTERS DECIDE !
1. The lead up to the stadium - I for one, believe that after two seasons filled with humiliating losses, big trades, new promises and public insults from the RSL owner; the REAL proposal is not reasonable. In the years since RSL showed up in Utah, the cost of funding a new REAL Stadium has grown from around $60 million to $145 million to over $650 million!? Sure, the last figure included hotels, restaurants and a broadcast station and other “stuff”, but the question remains…why should Utah, Salt Lake County, Sandy or Salt Lake City fund such a gamble? After all, REAL is a private endeavor and if all this makes so much sense, why doesn’t REAL ownership do what entrepreneurs in the U.S. have always done… package the proposition and go find private investors who want to back this so stadium scheme so that they can earn big returns. My answer is that it’s too risky to get funding. So RSL owners scrape the proposition off the lawn of private investors, repackage it, and try to sell it to our politicians (us)! I am offended.
2. A truly risky investment - Investing with REAL ownership in a new stadium to house a MSL team is not without risks. Statistics from the Major League Soccer website (www.mlsnet.com) show that average per game attendance, which stood at 18,567 fans per game in 1996 has fallen to 15,108 by 2005 (an almost 20% loss!). While we are all in the honeymoon phase with SLC REAL, imagine how betrayed and stupid the supporting politicians will feel when the MLS decides that the league needs to reduce the number of teams again, just as it did in January 2002. Back then, MLS pulled the Miami Fusion and Tampa Mutiny teams from the league roster in a surprise move. When Utah gets that call, the legacy of our $145+ million, publicly subsidized investment will be a new, empty stadium. Checketts will be gone, their little Trolley Square office closed, all the manly television ads quieted and all who supported this scheme will be answering questions about why the money was not spent more wisely. All the politicians who supported this scheme will look pretty dumb then proclaiming that “we still own the land”!
3. MSL – is “Minor” League Soccer - The absurdity of this soccer stadium did not sink in until I watched the mighty US team get taken out of the 2006 World Cup tournament by Ghana! How many kids in Utah even know where Ghana is? Well, Ghana is located in western Africa, is about the size of Oregon and has only 22 million citizens. By comparison, with almost 300 million people, the United States has 40 times the land mass of Ghana. So, how did little Ghana beat the mighty USA? More importantly, why is this relevant? The answer is because soccer is important in Ghana and the Ghana athletes play better and were coached better than our USA team.
So, what are we watching when we see Real Salt Lake play soccer? We are seeing a very small portion of a weak, very minor league version of the game which is played so beautifully by teams and countries all over the globe. For the same reason that our Salt Lake Bees (or is it Buzz?) won’t sell out any 25,000 seat stadiums, neither will Real Salt Lake. Major League Soccer? I think not…Real Salt Lake is truly in the minors.
4. Why wont REAL reach its financial objectives - For starters, the ability to make the stadium a financial success, RSL will need to fill the stadium with paying customers. I suggest that whoever provided the rosy attendance projections for RSL could be suspected of indulging in psychedelic drugs. It seems that while the entire league (www.mslnet.com) continues on a slow downward grind in attendance (down 13% from 17,400 per game in 1996 to 15,100 per game in 2005), RSL (9,900 average attendance during inaugural season in 2005) is projected to buck that trend and have an average attendance of 21,400 by 2015 (220% of last years attendance).
Further, while Salt Lake City and satellite communities can be considered fair sports fans, With a MSA population of just 1.3 million persons, Salt Lake is by far the smallest market in the MLS with a population that sits at just 25% of the average MSA population of the 12 team league (average MSA population 5.2 million persons per team). It’s no wonder that RSL cannot find private investors to buy this attendance projection scenario…and neither should our elected representatives.
5. Don’t worry, we’ll still own the land - The idea that the value of the investment is collateralized by the land is farcical on its face. What would the state or county do with a stadium on our land? Tear it down? At what cost?...has anyone figured in the cost of demolition and rehabilitation of the land? A more likely scenario is that after all of the smart guys run for cover for the decision to fund and build the stadium, more genius’ would emerge to suggest that the county continue running the stadium and absorb the overhead and maintenance that will not be paid for by our former MLS team. Now a staple of high school football, soccer, lacrosse and field hockey games, our new stadium will feature an occasional truck pull or moto-cross as a highlight event.
6. Can’t Decide? Let the question be put to the voters – Drag this issue out of the backrooms and into the sunlight. The idea the Governor Huntsman has assembled a bunch of businessmen and politicians behind closed doors to “broker” soccer stadium deals is not a comfort to me. Put a stadium bond on the ballot and let’s see what the voters say. I hope that all the politicians are paying attention…we want to be heard. This is not chump change and there are a lot of needs which could be met with tens of million dollars.
I urge all of our elected representatives to look beyond this REAL gamble and use our tax funding to support real (as in substantial) needs like corporate business recruiting and relocation to bring high paying headquarter jobs, improved educational investment, light rail, road repair and an arts district to provide additional cultural texture to our city, county and state.
Bill Shadrach
2239 Emerson Avenue
Salt Lake City, UT 84108
