LEAGUE NOTES

     RHI announced this week that the league's 18 teams have
combined to break the 1 million mark in regular-season
attendance.  RHI is on pace to break last year's record of
1,133,575, set with a 24-team league.  Attendance is up 19% per
game over '95 (RHI)....Fred Pope, a Lexington, KY-based ad exec,
is pitching horse racing industry leaders on his proposed
National Thoroughbred Association.  If his business plan is
approved the league could begin governing the sport in about a
year (Lexington HERALD-LEADER, 8/14)....The WASHINGTON POST
profiles MLS:  "Television ratings are strong, albeit not
staggering, and major investors ... are pleased."  Univision has
averaged a 5.4 rating, above expectations, while ESPN2's Thursday
night game has averaged a 0.4.  ESPN spokesperson Dean Diltz
acknowledges that ESPN's audience has been smaller (a 0.6 rating,
but twice as many available households) because there has been
"no rhyme or reason" to scheduling MLS games (WASHINGTON POST,
8/15).