Sports Briefs: Giants, city in accord on park

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Giants and San Francisco reached preliminary agreement on a 25-year lease for the site of the team's new ballpark, scheduled to open for the 2000 season.

The Giants will pay the city $1.2 million a year and have committed to play at least 23 years at the privately-funded, 42,000-seat, $255 million stadium, to be called Pacific Bell Park. The rent is subject to cost-of living increases.

As part of the deal announced on Monday, the Giants agreed to pay fair market value for the 12.5 acres of land in China Basin, on the city's waterfront south of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The lease would include successive five-year renewal options at the end of the 25-year term.

The agreement is binding, pending an environmental draft report scheduled to be released in February.

Kingdome concessions

Promising to give voters the final say on taxes needed to build a stadium, prospective Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen received a package of Kingdome lease concessions from the King County Council. The panel voted 9-4 on Monday to accept concessions designed to boost the team's bottom line by more than $8 million over the next three years and to cut the expiration of the Kingdome lease from 2005 to 1999. Allen, who has until July to exercise his option to buy the Seahawks from Ken Behring, has said the next move after securing lease concessions would be to see what sort of new stadium financing package could be crafted with state lawmakers in Olympia. He favors demolishing the Kingdome and building an open-air stadium on the site. He has pledged $100 million in private money for the project estimated to cost between $370 million and $402 million.

Trial in Senna death

Frank Williams, head of the Formula One team, and five others were ordered to stand trial Feb. 20 on manslaughter charges in the 1994 death of driver Ayrton Senna at Imola, Italy. Senna, a Brazilian, suffered fatal head injuries when his Williams car went off the Tamburello corner and smashed into a concrete wall in the initial laps of the San Marino GP on May 1, 1994. According to ANSA, the indictment said technical experts blamed the crash on a "badly done" modification of the steering column, which broke. ANSA said the other defendants were Patrick Head, technical manager of the Williams team; Federico Bendinelli, an official of the company that runs the Italian track; Giorgio Poggi, director of the track in 1994; Roland Bruinseraede, Belgian director of the 1994 World Formula One Championship races, and Adrian Newey, design director for Senna's car.

UNLV swimmers triumph

UNLV's swimming program made it a clean sweep by capturing both the men's and women's titles in the 13th annual UNLV Winter Invite Monday night at Buchanan Natatorium. The Rebels men's team racked up 1,208 points to easily outdistance second-place Northern Arizona, which had 668.5 points. UC Davis was third with 234 points and Utah was fourth with 80. UNLV's Erik Scalise set his third school record and third NCAA provisional mark of the meet in winning the 1,650-yard freestyle in 15:32.25. Ryan Kelly posted his second school record and first NCAA provisional mark with a 44.57 time in the 100 freestyle. Scot Eliott of UNLV won the200-yard butterfly in 1:53.79 and the Rebels' 400 free relay team won its event in 3:02.44. On the women's side, the Rebels took first place with 897 points, Utah was second with 520, NAU was third with 403 and UC Davis fourth with 118. UNLV's Jen Crowder won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:19.30 and the Rebels' 400 free relay team took first in 3:31.80. The Rebels next swim on Jan. 6 when they host Wyoming at Buchanan Natatorium.

Table tennis appearance

The City of Las Vegas will honor the 1996 USA Olympic table tennis team and its coaches at 8:30 tonight at the Fremont Street Experience. The team also will put on a demonstration. The event is a prelude to the $50,000 USA Table Tennis National Championships which begin Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Agassi to play in Davis Cup

Las Vegan Andre Agassi will play for the first time in 1997 by making his first appearance in two years for the U.S. Davis Cup team when it travels to Brazil for a first-round match in February. "It's a great way to start the way," Agassi said of the Feb. 7-9 match scheduled for San Paulo, which will be his first Davis Cup appearance since injuring his shoulder in a 1995 semifinal match against Sweden. Agassi earlier this month announced he would not play in the Australian Open in January so he could rest. The 1995 Australian Open champion, he lost in the first round of his last three tournaments at the Paris Indoor, the ATP Championships and the Grand Slam Cup. For only the second time in the last five years he failed to win at least one Grand Slam crown and didn't make the final in a major for just the second time since 1990.

Manning undecided

University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning insists he hasn't decided whether to enter the NFL draft or return for his senior season. Manning, who previously said he would decide before the Vols face Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl, has completed 243 of 380 passes for 3,287 yards and 20 touchdowns this season.