Dell Loy Hansen on Fair Park deal: Real Monarchs stadium is "a gift"

The potential Fair Park stadium deal is hanging in the balance, but Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen is as confident as ever — and that precipice won't disrupt those plans.

During a regular interview on ESPN 700's Bill and OC Show, Dell Loy Hansen said the Fair Park stadium deal for Real Monarchs is a "gift to the state."

"We wanted to make a gift to the state," Hansen said. "We've asked for nothing. We've said that we'll handle all of the finance and even some of the capital improvements. The offer is extremely good."

For the deal to come to fruition, the Utah Legislature would have to show a desire to improve the state fair park.

"We're listening very carefully to the legislature and the state to making it a viable state fair," he said. "We believe it's very possible, and they should, but they have budget constraints."

It's not entirely negative from the legislature, though. Hansen says he's had positive feedback for the offer.

"I've had a lot of feedback, particularly from the senate side, saying they want this to happen," he said. "It would be a very busy, energetic part for the northwest quadrant (of Salt Lake.) A number of leaders have called, asked what they can do, but we said that we're hiring no lobbyists."

Hansen is nothing if not confident when discussing options for the stadium, and he's not going to wait for the legislature if more delays come out of the fracas.

"We're not lobbying," Hansen reiterated. "If they want the gift, we'll move forward. The point to notice is that there have always been options ... it's not a threat. Obviously, when this friction came up, we got a lot of phone calls. There will be a minor league stadium, we believe, in the valley. Hopefully it's at the fairpark. That's how we'll look at it."

With the stadium delays, Hansen anticipates a half-season push, with Real Monarchs moving into a stadium in July 2016.

"Under the best case, the most likely scenario is that we would play this season in our stadium, then play a half a year in our stadium, then mid-season move into the new stadium," he said. "We're pretty realistic that it would be the middle of next year that we'd move into the stadium."