THE MYSTICS GO INTO THE RECORD BOOKS FOR OPENING NIGHT CROWD

          The WNBA Mystics opened their inaugural season Friday
     at MCI Center against the Starzz before the largest crowd
     ever to attend a women's pro basketball game in the U.S., as
     20,674 fans watched the Mystics win their opener.  The
     previous attendance record was 18,937 set in Charlotte last
     year (Mystics).  In DC, Knight & Weil wrote that game
     spectators "spoke of 'girl power' and of other gender
     equality, if not in just those words" (WASHINGTON POST,
     6/21).  Also in DC, Michael Wilbon wrote, "In the 18 years
     I've been covering sports here, it's one of the two or three
     coolest nights I can remember" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/21).