Baltimore To Push For New Arena, NBA Franchise

With Camden Yards a success and a football stadium under construction, city officials in Baltimore want to build a 20,000-seat arena near both in hopes of attracting an NBA expansion franchise.

City planners already have developed a feasibility study, which calls for the proposed arena to be built on the site of a parking lot just north of Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles play.

The center - which also could serve as home to the Baltimore Bandits of the American Hockey League - would cost between $100 million and $200 million to build in the next five to 10 years.

The plan calls for state, city and private sources to fund the project.

-- Forward Eric Williams of the Boston Celtics has a heart abnormality, discovered during a routine pre-camp physical, that will keep him from joining the NBA team at least for the start of training camp.

-- Center Rony Seikaly, upset over the Golden State Warriors' failure to meet his trade demands, was a no-show for the team's first training-camp practice yesterday.

FOOTBALL

Defensive end Anthony Smith reported to the Oakland Raiders nearly a week after leaving the team for unspecified reasons.

Smith was placed on reserve and remained suspended without pay. The Raiders said he would not play in tomorrow's game against the New York Jets.

-- Defensive end Darren Mickell of the New Orleans Saints was suspended for the next four games for violating the NFL's

substance-abuse policy. In addition, running back Ray Zellars, ordered off the practice field after a profanity-laced argument with Coach Jim Mora on Thursday, was suspended for tomorrow's game against Jacksonville.

TENNIS

Top-seeded Michael Chang beat Javier Frana of Argentina to move into the semifinals of the Singapore Open along with fellow American Jonathan Stark of Seattle and Britain's Greg Rusedski.

Chang outclassed Frana 6-4, 6-1 and will play Rusedski in the semis. Rusedski beat Russian Andrei Olhovskiy 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Stark, firing 12 aces, defeated Germany's Martin Sinner 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3).

Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek retired with a knee injury during his quarterfinal match with Thomas Johansson, who was awarded the match by default.

-- Monica Seles withdrew from the European Indoor Championships in Zurich later this month after beginning a new rehabilitation program in an effort to avoid surgery on her injured left shoulder.

-- Helena Sukova knocked Arantxa Sanchez Vicario out of of Germany's Leipzig Open, advancing to the semifinals with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) upset. Iva Majoli of Croatia struggled to outlast Olympic champion Lindsay Davenport 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) in another quarterfinal match.

BOXING

Roy Jones Jr. retained his IBF super-middleweight title with a TKO of Bryant Brannon at 2:23 of the second round last night at Madison Square Garden.

COURTS

A pool mechanic and his employer were acquitted of charges related to the carbon-monoxide death of tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis. Gerulaitis, who was 40, died Sept. 18, 1994, while sleeping in a cottage on a friend's Long Island, N.Y., estate. Investigators blamed the death on a faulty swimming-pool heater.

-- Rudy Galindo, national men's figure-skating champion, entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge in San Jose, Calif., and was sentenced to a weekend work program.

HORSE RACING

Dramatic Gold, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, scored his second consecutive victory by holding off a late charge by Formal Gold in the $750,000 Buick Meadowlands Cup in East Rutherford, N.J.

Bowling

Dave Husted became the first bowler to win consecutive U.S. Open titles in the men's final, and rookie Liz Johnson captured the women's crown in Indianapolis.

Husted, from Milwaukie, Ore., defeated BPAA entry George Brooks 216-214. Johnson beat Marianne DiRupo 265-236.

LOCAL NOTES

Katey Ward scored the deciding goal 29 minutes into the game and Erin Pochman had two assists as the Washington women's soccer team beat Michigan 3-0 in the Husky/Umbro Invitational at Royals Field in Puyallup.

Fourth-ranked Portland (6-0-2) and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (6-4-1) tied 1-1.

-- USC beat Washington 6-1 in the Fall Baseball Classic in Spokane.

-- No. 19 Washington (3-1 Pac-10, 13-2) beat Oregon 15-3, 15-2, 15-8 in a home volleyball match.

-- Senior Beth Palmer had 13 kills and 14 digs to lead the Seattle Pacific (5-2, 8-7) women's volleyball team to a 15-13, 15-13, 15-11 victory over visiting Alaska-Fairbanks.