PAINEWEBBER APPROVED TO HANDLE SPURS ARENA FINANCING

          Bexar County commissioners "voted unanimously"
     yesterday to hire PaineWebber Group to "handle the senior
     underwriting services for the sale" of $146.5M in revenue
     bonds to finance the $175M Spurs arena, according to Tom
     Bower of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS.  Bower reports that
     PaineWebber "was chosen from among" seven firms including
     Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs.  Rebecca
     Hefflin, who works for Bexar County's bond counsel firm,
     said that "one reason" PaineWebber's proposal was chosen was
     that its proposal included a "special two-day sales and
     marketing plan" in which individual investors in the county
     and TX "will be able to buy the bonds ahead of institutional
     investors."  Hefflin said that a "conservative financing
     projection" has the bonds being paid off in 19 years, but if
     revenues "don't reach expectations, the debt could be
     stretched to a longer time frame" (EXPRESS-NEWS, 11/10).