NETS AND YANKEES HAVE DIFFERENT PASTS, SAME CLOUDY FUTURES

          The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA)
     on Thursday invited designers to "submit plans to upgrade or
     rebuild" Continental Arena in hopes of enticing the Nets to
     remain at the facility "well into the next century,"
     according to Thomas Fitzgerald of the Bergen RECORD.  The
     request for proposals came two days after the sale of the
     team to a group of NJ business execs was announced, but
     NJSEA officials said that the timing "was coincidental." 
     However, Fitzgerald wrote that the authority is asking
     designers to "come back with everything" the new Nets
     owners, who want to build an arena in Newark, have asked for
     including luxury suites, restaurants and merchandise stores
     (Bergen RECORD, 7/3).  In Newark, Sterling & Chambers wrote
     that NJSEA officials are expected to meet with new and old
     Nets owners later this month "to try to work out a short-
     term lease arrangement that will hold the team beyond 2000,
     when it has an escape hatch" in its Continental lease (STAR
     LEDGER, 7/4).  Newark's revival efforts, which include a
     potential Nets' new arena, were the subject of a front-page
     piece by Charles Bagli in Sunday's N.Y TIMES (7/5).
          THE (ONGOING) BRONX TALE: A NYC mayoral task force is
     "visiting some of the nation's most popular baseball
     stadiums to ponder why New York City's two ballparks don't
     measure up."  The group will report back to NYC Mayor Rudy
     Giuliani at the end of the MLB season (N.Y. DAILY NEWS,
     7/4).  NJ Governor Christine Whitman's office confirmed that
     the state's Commerce Commissioner had written a memo
     "outlining a plan" between the Yankees and state officials
     to "explore the possibility" of moving the team to NJ.
     However, Whitman's office denied a "concerted effort to lure
     the Yankees" away from the Bronx (N.Y. TIMES, 7/4).