Salt Lake City: Cultural Brown Field

I kid, I kid.

The Salt Lake Tribune asked some knowledgeable types to run a bullshit detector over Dave Checketts' claims as to how eagerly Utahns (yes, I got to use the word!) venture out for big-name concerts. In his push to build Real Salt Lake their stadium in Sandy, Checketts claims that by 2010 he'll get 18 acts per annum in the stadium with an average draw of 17,000 screaming Utahns (that's two!). And that figure is a big part of Checketts' plan for keeping stadium operations in the black.

The people the paper ran those numbers back only noted that history is against Checketts' numbers - whether he dubs those figures conservative or not. There are some unintentionally funny quotes in this one: see the word "price-sensitive" - which used to be abbreviated as "cheap" - or the way the experts dance around the, um, social dynamic in the valley, which may keep people from turning out for rock 'n' roll. I'm not knocking the city - hell, I don't go to concerts any more (all the damn kids) - so much as I'm noting that I've never heard of a "Salt Lake City Sound" going national.

In any case, it's an interesting read in how non-soccer stuff impacts soccer.

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