United League Interested in Coliseum

Officials of the United Baseball League, which will begin play in 1996 as an announced third major league, named its first six franchises Tuesday, with either Los Angeles or an Inland Empire location among them.

Co-founder Bob Mrazek said he has had “very positive” discussions with Coliseum officials about putting a team there.

Mrazek said that a choice between Los Angeles and either Riverside or San Bernardino would be made soon. He would not identify potential investors in the Los Angeles franchise but said they had the “most exciting conceptual and marketing approaches” of any group the new league has talked to in any city.

Other charter franchises were awarded to New Orleans; Vancouver; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Washington and New York, where a site is to be chosen from among Northern New Jersey, Long Island and Brooklyn. The league said it will open with eight teams, with Honolulu and Mexico City among cities in the running for the other two spots.