In an announcement described as "amazing and remarkable,"
the Manitoba Entertainment Complex (MEC) has commitments by the
city's corporate community to buy 40 luxury boxes and 1,200
premium seats for a new hockey rink for the Jets.  MEC
spokesperson Bob Silver: "We've sold air.  We have no site, we
have no building. ... We don't even have a hockey season."  The
new rink, if its built at all, won't open until '97, but arena
builders are "optimistic" by the marketing effort.  Jets
President Barry Shenkarow said a reason for the success is that
the NHL labour dispute has boosted the confidence of
"Winnipeggers" that a league wide salary cap will be realized and
that a small market franchises such as the Jets will draw fans to
a new building still on the driving board.  The team has said it
will move if it does not get a new facility.  The MEC has
generated C$5.8M for the project and C$8.2M in annual revenues.
Their target is to raise C$10M toward the cost of the C$110M
facility (David Roberts, Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 12/9).

     A day after Bullets/Caps Owner Abe Pollin's proposal for a
new downtown arena in DC "cleared an important hurdle," Bob
Johnson, president of Black Entertainment Television, reiterated
his plan to build the arena with his own funds and try to buy a
share of the teams from Pollin.  Johnson will now take his fight
to Congress which must approve the project and funding.  He has
hired Republican lobbyist Tom Korologos to "press his case with
the incoming GOP leadership."  Johnson has generated a letter
with 17 signatures from GOP Senators who will not support using
city bonds when a private investor is ready to "assume the risk."
Johnson: "Am I going away?  I go away when the process is
complete" (Howard Schneider, WASHINGTON POST, 12/9).

     According to Jack Nease in Ft. Lauderdale, Viacom execs
"still won't say how they feel about the sports and entertainment
complex" that Blockbuster Entertainment Chair Wayne Huizenga
planned for a 3,000-acre site on the Dade-Broward county line.  A
Viacom spokesperson in New York: "It is not killed.  But it is
not a certainty.  It's still under review, and these things take
time."  Nease notes that "all systems were go" until the
Blockbuster-Viacom merger, but because of the amount of debt
Viacom has accumulated, "the prospect of developing a South
Florida theme park and sports complex is obviously much less
appealing" to Viacom Chair Sumner Redstone than to Huizenga (Ft.
Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 12/8).