LEAGUE NOTES

          The NHL and the NHL Officials' Association Executive
     Committee have announced an agreement on the central terms
     of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that runs through
     the 2000-01 season.  As part of the agreement, the NHL
     officials have agreed to participate in the upcoming Nagano
     Winter Olympics (NHL)....The ABL has announced its '97-98
     schedule.  Each team will play a 44-game schedule, up from
     40 last season, with an even spilt of home and road games. 
     Of the 198 total regular-season games, 65%, or 128, will be
     played on the weekend (ABL)....A WASHINGTON POST editorial,
     on MLB's proposed realignment: "Baseball's problem of
     soaring payrolls and the imbalance between big-city clubs
     and those in smaller markets won't be solved by the sort of
     gimmickry represented by realignment.  That will take a
     truly effective revenue-sharing scheme and perhaps the
     acknowledgement that some cities simply aren't inclined to
     support their teams any more and may have to lose them"
     (WASHINGTON POST, 8/21).