LEAGUE NOTES

          WOMEN'S HOOPS: Roger Thurow examines the ABL and WNBA,
     writing that women's basketball, "swaddled in a warm, fuzzy
     blanket during its recent ascent in popularity, sits
     precariously atop the same fault line of outsized riches and
     celebrity that rumbles beneath all sports. ... This week,
     the first fissures -- salary wars, jealousies over
     endorsements, player defections -- opened up and began
     swallowing the innocence" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/19).  In
     Utah, Doug Robinson: "This thing could get ugly before it's
     finished, namely because it involves a) money; and b) women. 
     Women fighting is not a pretty sight" (DESERET NEWS, 9/18).
          NFL: In L.A., Steve Harvey wrote that Raiders Owner Al
     Davis "tells friends he believes NFL owners might agree to a
     settlement in his latest lawsuit by allowing him to bring an
     expansion team to Hollywood Park" (L.A. TIMES, 9/18)....In
     the NFL's first visit to western Canada, Vancouver will host
     an American Bowl game at B.C. Place August 15, 1998 (NFL).