NFL: The league announced that its attendance for the
     first quarter of the '97 season has increased almost 2,000
     fans per game over '96.  Paid attendance for the first 56
     games has averaged 62,287 per game compared to 60,462 last
     year (NFL)....Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, on the NFL's TV
     Committee, says revenues from the next NFL TV contract
     "could double to more than" $8B over four seasons.  Jones:
     "It wouldn't surprise me if it's in excess of 100%" (USA
     TODAY, 9/25)....NFLPA Exec Dir Gene Upshaw's employment
     contracts from the union and Players Inc. will pay him
     $11.2M over seven years (Mult., 9/24).  In Denver, Broncos
     DL Alfred Williams: "I don't know why I'm banging my body up
     if I can be become an NFL executive.  I'm doing the wrong
     thing" (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 9/25).
          GENERAL:  The CISL and the NPSL have agreed to
     interleague player loans that would permit indoor players to
     play both seasons, June-October for the CISL and November-
     April for the NPSL (CISL). 

          MLB "will eliminate wild-card teams for the playoffs if
     the leading realignment plan is approved," according to Hal
     Bodley of USA TODAY.  The NL would have four four-team
     divisions, putting its four champions in the playoffs.  The
     AL format "is being debated, but the likely structure is two
     seven-team divisions" with the two division winners and two
     runners-up making the playoffs (USA TODAY, 9/26).
          WHAT ABOUT BOB? PART II: In THE SPORTING NEWS, Bob
     Costas writes his second installment on MLB, offering
     thoughts on realignment, interleague play, the DH and the
     future of MLB.  Costas: "Baseball's revenues and fan base
     are massive.  That is not to say each could not be improved. 
     It is to say they are more than sufficient for the game to
     survive if its salary structure and revenue distribution
     made any sense" (THE SPORTING NEWS, 9/29 issue).

          The WNBA plans to announce next Wednesday that
     Washington and Detroit have been chosen as expansion cities,
     according to Amy Shipley of the WASHINGTON POST.  However,
     both markets "must get 3,000 season ticket commitments,
     negotiate" local TV and radio deals and allocate $250,000 to
     promotional activities by November 3 "to have a chance to
     join the current eight-team league by next summer."  League
     sources said that WNBA President Val Ackerman is leaning
     toward assigning former ABL player Nikki McCray to
     Washington if it wins a franchise.  A league source told
     Shipley that Orlando, "long believed" to be an expansion
     choice, "was never a leading candidate" (WASHINGTON POST,
     9/26).  In Detroit, Howes & McCosky report that GM, the
     WNBA's official automotive sponsor, will be a "key sponsor"
     of the Detroit franchise and "helped cement the WNBA's
     decision to award a team to Detroit" (DETROIT NEWS, 9/26).