Time running out for new Giants stadium
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The NFL's New York Giants failed to win support of their plan to build a new stadium in New Jersey, leaving the $800 million project's fate uncertain.
With just days before an agreement expires to replace the Meadowlands Sports Complex, the Giants offered to patch up their differences with the developers of Xanadu, a $2 billion entertainment and retail center planned as part of the project.
Xanadu, however, refused to take sides in proposals made by the Giants and New York Jets to continue sharing the sports facility, The New York Times reported.
The Giants have until Thursday to work out agreements with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, Xanadu and the Jets.
Sports Authority Chairman Carl Goldberg, citing the Giants' "truculent tone" and lack of agreement, said in a letter he reluctantly planned to consider terminating the agreement at the authority's meeting Friday.
The Jets have been exploring a move to Queens in New York.
Sheik pays Keeneland record $9.7 mil
LEXINGTON, Ky., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai paid $9.7 million for a "very special" Kentucky colt sired by Storm Cat and stakes-winning mare Tranquility Lake.
The sheik and Ireland's Coolmore conglomerate engaged in a record-setting bidding war Tuesday that drew gasps from the crowd at Keeneland's September yearling sale in Lexington, Ky.
The $9.7 million for the chocolate colt is the highest price ever paid at Keeneland -- and the third-highest in U.S. public-auction history. Seattle Dancer sold for $13.1 million in 1985 and Snaafi Dancer went for $10.2 million in 1983.
"Sheik Mohammed, from the first moment he laid eyes on this horse, he felt that this was very, very important that this horse race for" Godolphin, his family's racing stable, bloodstock adviser John Ferguson told the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.
Everything is special about the horse, said Alice Chandler, whose Mill Ridge Farm sold the yearling for owners Marty and Pam Wygod: "Pedigree, the way he moves, the attitude. Everything."
The Wygods plan to donate some of the proceeds from the sale to help Hurricane Katrina victims.
Head blows killed NFL's Terry Long
PITTSBURGH, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Former Pittsburgh Steelers guard Terry Long died from brain inflammation caused by repeated blows to the head during eight years in the NFL, a coroner ruled.
Allegheny County (Pa.) Coroner Cyril Wecht Tuesday blamed head blows that Long suffered during his football career for causing the cerebral meningitis that killed Long June 7.
Long died several hours after paramedics found him unconscious in his Franklin Park, Pa., home.
Wecht called for better helmets to protect all football players from the "punch-drunk syndrome" more common in boxers, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported.
Long, who was tapped by the Steelers in the 1984 NFL draft, left the team in 1991 after attempting suicide when he learned he faced suspension for violating the NFL's steroid policy. He rejoined the team but did not re-sign the next season.
In March, Long was accused of burning a chicken-processing plant in 2003 for the insurance money. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection just days before he died.
Funding not found for new Marlins stadium
MIAMI, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A new ballpark for the baseball's Florida Marlins is looking bleak after local officials say they have no more money to offer.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports a memo from Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess to county commissioners said the public financing needed to build a new stadium is out of their reach.
The Marlins and local officials are in discussions on building a 38,000-seat, retractable-roof park, but talks are stalling out.
County officials are trying to shore up the $45 million gap in funding that would keep the Marlins in south Florida.
The state Legislature didn't approve a tax break for the building and Miami officials said they have no more money to give to the project.
Burgess is working on finding other funding and will report to the county commission on Sept. 22.
