NO PLACE LIKE DOME: BUT IS IT WORTH THE WAIT FOR BROWNS?

          Putting a dome on Cleveland's new football stadium
     "could delay the resurrection of the Browns until 2000,"
     according to David Adams in the AKRON BEACON JOURNAL.  A
     group called the Super Bowl Domed Stadium Committee is
     circulating petitions in Cleveland that "would give city
     residents the option of choosing a stadium with a dome." 
     They need 5,000 signatures from registered voters to get a
     dome referendum on the November ballot, "a number that many
     believe they will get."  The additional cost for a dome
     would be "about" $64M, according to Browns President William
     Futterer.  If a ballot measure passes, redesign of the
     stadium would take a year, "postponing the team's ability to
     play in Cleveland."  A "little-known provision" of the
     city's deal with the NFL "allows the NFL to delay putting a
     team in Cleveland until 2000 if the stadium is not ready" by
     '99.  Futterer: "If we had to start (to redesign the
     facility) ... We would be back to square one" (AKRON BEACON
     JOURNAL, 3/12).