This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 2:27 PM- Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson may have canceled today's emergency City Council meeting about putting a Real Salt Lake stadium at the Utah State Fairpark. But that doesn't mean he's giving up on a Major League Soccer venue.

But it may not be at the fairpark.

When asked if he was still pursuing the fairpark idea, Anderson said Wednesday: "I can't say," even though he's been publicly pushing the idea since Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon rejected public financing for a Sandy stadium on Monday.

Instead, Anderson said: "I'm pursuing MLS in Utah. I am absolutely committed to doing everything we can to put a deal together."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has met with House Speaker Greg Curtis and Senate President John Valentine to discuss soccer options. They declined to name the possibilities, but they could include salvaging the stadium in Sandy by diverting hotel taxes from the county and giving them to a new sports authority, which then would hand the money over to Sandy.

Another Salt Lake City option once floated was placing the stadium downtown north of the Gateway on property owned by Gastronomy.

Company owner Tom Guinney said Wednesday that he has not spoken with the team about the land. "We do have a great location for soccer in Salt Lake City downtown. We tried to put this together about six months ago but it didn't fly."

When asked if he had any hope of his property being a possibility, he said: "I'm not qualified to have an opinion on that."

In addition, Anderson Development wants to keep RSL in the state by moving it to Utah County and, possibly, buying the team.

Attorney Michael Hutchings, a co-owner of the Sandy-based company, said he would be meeting this afternoon with RSL chief executive officer Dean Howes.

Hutchings already has spoken by phone with RSL owner Dave Checketts this week and said he plans to huddle with him in person next week.

MLS sources say Checketts recently received clearance from the league to explore relocating his 2-year-old franchise to St. Louis.

Salt Lake City's mayor referred to a possible sale as reason to cancel Wednesday's council meeting.

"Mr. Checketts may have sold the team by this afternoon," Anderson said.

The mayor also didn't want to discuss soccer in public saying the news media could "screw things up for us."

Tribune reporter Todd Hollingshead contributed to this story.