SAN DIEGO TASK FORCE RECOMMENDS A PUBLIC STADIUM VOTE IN '98

          The San Diego mayor's Padres task force "recommended
     the public vote on a baseball-only stadium by the end of
     next year," according to Barry Bloom of the SAN DIEGO UNION-
     TRIBUNE.  In its "long-awaited" report released Friday, the
     task force "agreed that the Padres are losing so much money
     playing at Qualcomm Stadium that a park tailored to baseball
     may be the team's only salvation" in San Diego.  Mayor Susan
     Golding said that she "definitely plans to put the question
     on the ballot."  Padres President & Minority Owner Larry
     Lucchino: "The report says we are having a financial
     dilemma.  I wouldn't call it a dilemma.  It's more like a
     crisis.  A serious crisis" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/20).