Nashville Goes in Debt, Oilers Still in Houston

The citizens of Nashville awakened Wednesday to the knowledge that they had approved $80 million in indebtedness, but also with the understanding that the Oilers are still Houston’s and might stay that way for a while longer.

Though the Oilers apparently stand ready to move to Memphis, Tenn., while Nashville builds its stadium, Houston Mayor Bob Lanier said he is holding them to the final two years of their lease with the Astrodome, where they averaged about 35,000 fans a game last season.

Team owner Bud Adams has been negotiating with Lanier, and the Oiler football schedules have been printed without a home site, though they did send invoices for season tickets and luxury boxes to Houston fans last week.

There is an agreement to play in Memphis this season, if the Oilers can extricate themselves from their Houston lease.

Lanier said he won’t break the deal unless the NFL guarantees Houston another franchise.

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Two Alabama football players, whom the school would not identify, have lost their eligibility until they clear up tire loans of about $1,000 and $190 guaranteed by Boyd Sutherland, a fan. . . . Baltimore Ravens officials said the team will train at Western Maryland College in Westminster, Md.

Tennis

Steffi Graf returned to the Italian Open after a nine-year absence and took up where she left off in beating Alexia Dechaume-Belleret, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6). It was also Graf’s first match on clay since the 1995 French Open.

Boris Becker, who has never won a major clay-court tournament but who is top-seeded in the German Open, outlasted Emilio Alvarez, ranked 187th, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, in Hamburg. Second-seeded Goran Ivanisevic, ranked sixth, was upset by Carl-Uwe Steeb, ranked 75th, 6-3, 6-4.

Unseeded Megan Shaugnessy, a 17-year-old Arizonan, stunned third-seeded Yelena Makarova, 6-1, 6-3, in the Lotto Open in Budapest, Hungary. . . . Mats Wilander cruised past Guillaume Raoux, 6-1, 6-1, but second-seeded Todd Woodbridge wasted five match points in falling to Fernando Meligeni, 6-7 (7-3), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, in the second round of the U.S. Clay Court Championships in Pinehurst, N.C.

Basketball

Guard Jason Hart from Inglewood High has decided not to attend Syracuse because of the worsening condition of an older brother who is suffering from kidney disease. He is said to be considering attending UCLA, if the NCAA will release him from a letter-of-intent to attend Syracuse.

Jurisprudence

Dennis Pedini, a onetime associate of Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin whose clandestine tape purports to show him in possession of cocaine, was sworn in as a potential witness in Irvin’s pending drug case and instructed to abide by a gag order in the case.

Police in Brussels arrested 250 fans before the European Cup Winners Cup soccer final, won by Paris-St. Germain over Rapid Vienna, 1-0, in an attempt to ward off problems at the venue in which 39 people were killed in a hooligan riot 11 years ago.

Fernando Smith’s agent, Jeff Durand, says the Minnesota Viking defensive end will return to Michigan to face a felony charge that he owes more than $42,000 in court-ordered child support.

Olympics

Qu Yunxia, the world-record holder in the 1,500 meters, finished a distant eighth in China’s Olympic trials in Beijing, casting doubt on whether she will qualify for the Atlanta Games.

After nearly eight hours of deliberations, the regatta jury at the U.S. Olympic yachting trials in Savannah, Ga., dismissed the protest Ed Baird filed against fellow Soling skipper Jeff Madrigali.

Miscellany

The Los Angeles City Council agreed to extend a contract with Los Angeles Marathon Inc. through 2005 in exchange for $100,000 annually, instead of an advertising trade-off valued at the same amount.

Pascal Herve of France cut 55 seconds out of race leader Lance Armstrong’s overall advantage, winning the eighth and most strenuous stage of the Tour DuPont, a 109.6-mile ride from Bristol, Va., to Beech Mountain, N.C., in 5 hours 3 seconds.

Japan’s 100-meter track champion, Yoshitaka Ito, drew a four-year suspension after testing positive for methyltestosterone.