The A's can exercise an option to get out of their
Coliseum lease by July 1, but team co-Owner Steve Schott
said, "I don't think people should be nervous. We are here
in Oakland for three years minimum, maybe four. Baseball
isn't going anywhere" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 2/22)....In Boston,
Peter Gammons wrote that there is "all kind of talk that
[Marlins Owner] Wayne Huizenga is less than pleased that
[team President] Don Smiley said he had the money to take
the Marlins off Huizenga's hands when he didn't, and that
he'd like to get the club sold to either Northern Virginia
or Las Vegas" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/22)....In Raleigh, Steve
Politi writes that some think Hurricanes Owner Peter
Karmanos' $38M offer to Sergei Fedorov is his "vindictive
way of showing up a rival," Red Wings Owner Mike Ilitch.
But Karmanos disagrees, saying "Mike and I have been good
friends for a couple of years" (NEWS & OBSERVER, 2/22)....In
St. Paul, insiders told Charley Walters that during last
week's Vikings ownership hearing before NFL Commissioner
Paul Tagliabue, team President Roger Headrick "requested
time to raise cash for a prospective purchase of the
franchise" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 2/22)....SportsCorp
President Marc Ganis, Tom Clancy's point man in his bid for
the Vikings, was profiled by Blake Morrison in the ST. PAUL
PIONEER PRESS. Ganis "had earned a reputation as part pit
bull, part porcupine. A smooth-talking deal-maker who
refuses to let go of what he wants and bristles at those who
chastise or challenge" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 2/22).
