Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, in a TV interview Sunday
night, "dismissed critics who say that rising land costs
might price" the Red Sox out of the Fenway neighborhood: "I
don't believe there is another alternative in the city of
Boston. They talk about the incinerator site; we've tried
that, and it doesn't work. We tried the waterfront site, it
didn't work. ... Fenway is the site" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/20).
...In Charlotte, Jon Goldberg writes that city leaders "may
ask the Hornets to extend their stay" in the Charlotte
Coliseum. The franchise's lease at the arena is up December
31, and an extension would give the Hornets and the city
"more time to work out a deal." Tom Drew, spokesperson for
team co-Owner Ray Wooldridge, said, "We've got to see what
form the request comes in. But [Wooldridge] wants to make
this work in Charlotte" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 6/20)....In
Chicago, Neil Milbert cites sources as saying that Arlington
Int'l Racecourse "will become part of" Churchill Downs'
"expanding racetrack family late this week," with Arlington
Owner Dick Duchossois becoming "Churchill's biggest
stockholder" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/20)....In DC, Manuel Perez-
Rivas wrote that the SoccerPlex complex in Germantown, MD,
which is managed under a partnership between the MD Soccer
Foundation and Montgomery County, "plans to sell not only
the name for the whole complex, but also the rights to each
field." An indoor sports facility on the site "already has
been named" for Discovery Communications, which provided $1M
toward the project (WASHINGTON POST, 6/18).....Brent
Musburger, on Conseco Fieldhouse: "It is by far the best
basketball venue in the United States, it's terrific. ...
I'm talking about NBA" ("Up Close," ESPN, 6/19)....ESPN2's
Benny Parsons, on the new $150M Kentucky Speedway: "It is a
great, great racetrack. ... Unfortunately, [it] caught a
tough break when it rained Friday and Saturday about a
couple of inches so the parking lots flooded, and people had
trouble getting in there" ("RPM 2Night," ESPN2, 6/19).
