TIM RIGAS NAMED CEO AS SABRES DISMISS PRESIDENT/CEO QUINN

          The Sabres have dismissed President & CEO Larry Quinn. 
     Empire Sports Network VP/GM Ron Bertovich will act as
     interim GM of Administration for the team, overseeing day-
     to-day non-hockey administration functions.  Sabres GM Darcy
     Regier will continue to lead the hockey department.  Both
     will report directly to new Sabres CEO Timothy Rigas, son of
     new Sabres Chair John Rigas.  John Rigas: "With new
     ownership ... comes different management philosophies"
     (Sabres).  Tim Rigas said the post of team president "will
     remain open for the time being" (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/9).
          REAX: In Buffalo, Jim Kelley wrote that Quinn, who won
     out "in a bitter struggle for power within the organization"
     to become President in November of '96, "had a controversial
     term."  Some 1,600 season tickets were not renewed after
     last season.  Quinn's "right hand man," Sabres Exec VP/
     Sports & Arena Operations Dan DiPofi, also resigned (BUFFALO
     NEWS, 4/8).  In Toronto, David Shoalts: "Quinn's tenure was
     marked by a series of public relations disasters, not all of
     them of his own making" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 4/9).  In
     Toronto, Damien Cox writes that Quinn's dismissal "may have
     ended the most contentious, hateful chapter in the history
     of this 28-year-old franchise" (TORONTO STAR, 4/9).