SPURS: City of San Antonio arena negotiator Gene Locke
thought he had reached a deal with the Spurs to develop the
city's arena plan. But he said, "It's clear to me now,
while I was having discussions with the Spurs, they were
having discussions with the county." The Spurs chose
Thursday to back the county plan (EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/14). In
San Antonio, Carlos Guerra wrote that the team's decision
"stunned city officials" (EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/14). Also in San
Antonio, Roddy Stinson wrote that the "official estimate" of
the city's income from the Spurs' '99 season is $3.783M,
which includes $797,301 from eight playoff games. The city's
estimated income in '97-98 was $3.539M (EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/15).
NOTES: In L.A., Rick Orlov wrote that the Galaxy have
"decided against building" a 30,000-seat stadium at Hansen
Dam in the San Fernando Valley. Team President Tim Leiweke
would not say which "sites are being looked at for a
possible future move, but said some are in the San Fernando
Valley. At the same time, he pointed to the fact that the
team's owners also own the Great Western Forum site" (L.A.
DAILY NEWS, 8/14)....Fan behavior at Philadelphia's Veterans
Stadium is in the news again after an altercation left 25-
year-old Chris Hillanbrand in critical condition after
Thursday's Ravens-Eagles game. The PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS'
April Adamsom writes under the header, "Brutal Backers:
Officials Seek Ways To Sack Wild Fans" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY
NEWS, 8/16)....Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, on adding a grass
field to Texas Stadium: "We're about five years away. When
we do it, it'll be part of a lot of different things such as
stadium expansion and adding more interactive things for the
fans" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 8/15).
FOR YOUR FILES: The AKRON BEACON JOURNAL ran a 12-page
special on Cleveland Browns Stadium in yesterday's issue.
Among notes of interest: The "rousing rock anthem, "Somebody
Let The Dawgs Out," which isn't the team's official song,
but will be played at the Stadium. The song is sung by Kim
Carnes....Browns Owner Al Lerner paid $13.5M to upgrade the
scoreboard system. The west scoreboard, 94-feet by 27-feet,
is "the largest in the NFL." The system will be called
Brownsvision (8/15)....Cleveland officials estimated that
about 100,000 fans attended the Browns' tour of the new
stadium held over the weekend (PLAIN DEALER, 8/16).
