STADIUM NOTES

     Pompano Beach, FL, officials were told they can bid to build
an arena for the Panthers, but NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
"warned that the county must pick a site quickly or risk losing
the team."  Bettman has asked Broward County to "act quickly on
the two sites long under consideration," Ft. Lauderdale and
Sunrise.  Bettman has offered to "structure a deal with a long
term lease and with a requirement that a team would have to pay
the county back" if it left before its lease expired (MIAMI
HERALD, 1/24). ...In Boston, Joan Vennochi examines the Red Sox's
difficulty in finalizing a deal for a new ballpark writing that
Sox management "apparently believed the team's status as a sacred
cow was all they needed to succeed" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/24)