A proposal for a replacement for Fenway Park was unveiled by
MA-based architects Eduardo Lozano and Michael Baskin last week
in Boston.  The plan calls for a new park to be built next to the
current location on a deck over the Mass Turnpike, linking it
with the Hynes Veterans Convention Center, via a half-mile
pedestrian walkway (Richard Kindleberger, BOSTON GLOBE, 1/6).
Red Sox VP John Buckley denies any claims that the two parties
have met, but another source insists that meetings have been held
without Buckley's knowledge (Phil Primack, BOSTON HERALD, 1/6).

     A proposed change in federal law has "knocked the foundation
out from under the elaborate financial plans for a public
purchase" of the Target Center arena.  A way may be found to
restructure a buyout plan that works "financially and
politically, but for now the proposal put in place" by the MN
Legislature last spring "is dead."  The new federal law says that
a public body may not use tax-free bonds to buy a facility --
such as the Target Center -- if the building is used for the
benefit of a private tenant, such as the Timberwolves.  For more
than a year, the officials planning the arena purchase thought
that tax-free bonds could be used if the money to repay the bonds
came from new admission taxes and surcharges rather than from
direct lease payments by the Wolves.  Henry Savelkoul, Chair of
the MN Sports Facilities Commission: "If we follow the rules and
the state law, the deal just doesn't work, and we can't make it
work."  The latest development in the "tortuous buyout
negotiations has the potential to kill Glen Taylor's purchase of
the T-Wolves -- a purchase that is still contingent on a public
takeover of the arena" (Patrick Sweeney, St. Paul PIONEER PRESS,
1/9).

     As the WI Governor's Stadium Commission concludes its
business over the next three weeks, questions will have to be
answered regarding a new facility for the Brewers. Questions
remain how much the team will contribute to the $200M-plus
project, how much the public will pay, and where that public
money will come from.  But as Craig Gilbert writes in the
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, "While the stadium project has apparently
evolved over time from a largely private one to a largely public
one, the implications of that have never been made explicit to
the public."  Brewers VP/General Counsel Wendy Selig-Prieb on
publicly-assisted financing of a new stadium: "I don't believe
the public will be surprised.  I think there is a much higher
sophistication of knowledge about the sports business than there
has ever been" (Craig Gilbert, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, 1/8).