Tempe plans to lease a 40-acre parcel at the northeast corner of the Loop 202 and Priest Drive, just north of the Tempe Town Lake. The land is owned by Salt River Project, a local energy company, which would lease the land to Tempe for $1.8 million annually.

During the first two years of the life of the taxpayer-funded stadium, Tempe would pay the lease expenses, and after that a major developer would foot the bill. As the result of this deal, Tempe's proposal to the Tourism and Sports Authority could change by lowering the risk to the city and the TSA.

Tempe, along with a site in the West Valley, emerged as unofficial front runners late last week after the TSA chastised the three other proposals as being inadequate. Downtown Phoenix is still in the running, but the TSA doubts that the proposed site could be purchased, cleared of industrial contaminants and prepared for construction by the August deadline.

The proposed site along the Tempe/Mesa border was deemed by the TSA as placing too much financial burden on the authority, and the site on the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation is considered too remote to attract convention business and other non-football, revenue-producing events at the new 73,000-seat stadium.