FRANCHISE NOTES

          There are approximately 1,300 seats left for Game Three
     and 3,300 for Game Four for the Magic's home games next week
     in their first-round, best-of-five playoff series against
     the Heat (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/24)....Season-tickets for
     Redskins games at the new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium will cost
     between $40-60 per game, up from $35-50 last season
     (WASHINGTON POST, 4/23)....The RHI Minnesota Arctic Blast
     will go on hiatus for the '97 RHI season due to lack of an
     "adequate" outdoor facility (RHI)....Raptors VP/GM Isiah
     Thomas appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" this
     morning.  Thomas, on an African-American becoming majority
     owner in sports: "When you look at what David Stern and Russ
     Granik have done with the NBA, from a minority standpoint,
     in terms of including us as opposed to excluding us, I think
     they also deserve a lot of credit" ("GMA," ABC, 4/24).