MARKETPLACE ROUND-UP

          WA-based Baden Sports has signed the ABL's Kate
     Starbird to endorse all Baden women's basketball products,
     including her own basketball line (Baden)....The Univ. of
     Rhode Island signed an exclusive, five-year beverage
     contract with PepsiCo worth $2.6M.  In addition to exclusive
     beverage rights, Pepsi receives ad rights to URI sports
     events and will finance construction of two scoreboards at
     field hockey and soccer fields (Providence JOURNAL-BULLETIN,
     11/20)....Tiger Woods is a spokesperson for AmEx and a
     partner in the All-Star Cafe, which does not accept AmEx at
     its restaurants.  But yesterday, AmEx officials said that
     the Cafe will start accepting AmEx beginning January 1 (USA
     TODAY, 11/21)....Blackhawks Coach Craig Hartsburg "wasn't
     amused" by an ad in yesterday's L.A. Times that touted
     Thursday's Kings-Blackhawks game "like a boxing card."  The
     "main event" was the game and the "special feature bout" was
     Rob Blake vs. Chris Chelios.  Hartsburg: "That's really
     selling the game, isn't it?" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/21).