MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said the league is hoping
to expand to Chicago and one other site in '99. Charlotte
and Miami are considered finalist for the other spot. Logan
also said season-ticket sales are up 22% from a similar
period last year. The now total 27,119, with a goal of
50,000 for the start of the season (USA TODAY, 1/29).
...Houston may host a CART race on a course built downtown.
Texaco would be the sponsor and Houston city officials are
awaiting CART approval before making an announcement
(HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 1/28)....In Toronto, Jeffrey Simpson
writes on the quality of officiating in the NHL under the
header, "NHL Penalizes Fans With Silent Whistles." Simpson:
"The failure to call games even remotely by the book
contributes, in a perverse sense, to the much-vaunted parity
in the NHL" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 1/29)....In N.Y., Andy
Geller reports that "inexperienced volunteers reportedly
were briefed for only a few minutes on how to control bungee
cords" before the death of Dinky Patterson in rehearsing for
the Super Bowl halftime show (N.Y. POST, 1/29).
