Arena

What Kimmie's Angels on Ice When Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Where 1st Mariner Arena Tickets $75, $45, $25; available at ticketmaster .com. Call 410-347-2010 for information Benefits Cool Kids Campaign

A new Baltimore arena could be paid for with a special, regional tax and serve as an anchor for the revitalization of downtown's western edge, say city officials.In the most detailed discussion yet of the proposed sports venue -- which the city hopes will attract a major-league basketball or hockey team -- leaders of the project told a business group yesterday that Baltimore can support one more team and that landing it is not as far-fetched as many assume.But even without a team, the arena would, along with a refurbished Hippodrome Theater, be a co-anchor of an ambitious effort to stretch the glitter of the Inner Harbor to the west side of downtown, said Len Perna, a consultant hired by the city for the arena project.

Lost in the gush over the American victory in the Women's World Cup has been a tournament in Mexico for the men's team, selection of which coach Bruce Arena announced in Denver yesterday.The U.S. men open July 24 in Guadalajara against weak New Zealand, representing Oceania in the FIFA Confederations Cup.The tournament is intended to match the best national teams from each FIFA region of the world, but that has been tainted by less-than-enthusiastic participation. In fact, World Cup champion France took a pass.

Baltimore representatives who are trying to build support for a new downtown arena say they are encouraged by preliminary talks with National Basketball Association teams that might be enticed to move here."

The NBA Rockets, who have quietly explored a move to Baltimore over the past year, plan to take some time to assess their future in Houston in light of a stinging rejection by voters of an arena financing plan, a team official said yesterday.The Rockets are among a handful of teams that have met with Baltimore leaders regarding a possible relocation to a proposed downtown arena, according to a source familiar with Baltimore's quest. Team representatives have visited Baltimore, which is considered a top prospect, the source said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Bruce Arena closed the door to the U.S. team's locker room, the sweetness of yesterday's upset of Germany still new, and shouted, "Today the best team won!"Arena, who got his first victory since being appointed head coach of the U.S. men's national team in October, is trying to instill confidence in his revamped team, and he wanted his players to understand that the dominating, 3-0 win before 17,259 at Alltel Stadium was no fluke."Today's result will be a surprise around the world," Arena said later.

The Blast yesterday announced its preseason schedule, featuring a game against the Philadelphia Kixx and a league-wide tournament the weekend of Oct. 15-17.The Blast will face the Kixx Oct. 9 at 7: 35 p.m. at the new Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J. The game will be the first sporting event at the arena.The NPSL preseason tournament will be held at the Cleveland Sportsplex, home of the NPSL defending champion Cleveland Crunch. The round-robin tournament will feature all 12 teams playing in a series of 30-minute mini-games.

The Maryland Stadium Authority and the University of Maryland College Park have reached agreement on the target price of a proposed arena for the campus: $90 million.The proposed 17,000-seat building would replace 43-year-old Cole Field House, home court for the Terps.Cost estimates for the project have ranged from $106 million, which the stadium authority originally suggested, to $80.8 million, which the college thought it could afford. The university contracted with the stadium authority to oversee building the arena.

YOU KNOW you're from Baltimore if you still call it the Civic Center. And you know you're from Baltimore if you always thought it was a stupid idea to put a stage in it. (Bad design, waste of seating space. "They shoulda tore this place down the day they built it!") And now you know you're from Baltimore if you cringe at the prospect of spending more taxpayer millions to build a new downtown arena, but you can't bring yourself to say it's a terrible idea. Can you?National Basketball Association?

Did the state offer to build an arena at Camden Yards for the NBA Wizards and NHL Capitals before turning to an NFL team?The owner of the basketball franchise says so. But local officials dispute that account, and one even says it was the team owner who proposed a Baltimore arena be built for him but the idea was rejected.Abe Pollin, chairman of Washington Sports & Entertainment, whose holdings include the Wizards and, until earlier this year, the Capitals, took out a full-page ad in yesterday's Washington Post.

Bruce Springsteen fans snapped up all the tickets for The Boss' 1st Mariner Arena show in a mere 20 minutes, officials said Friday. For the record, that's about 15 minutes faster than pop star Hannah Montana, according to Frank Remesch, the arena's general manager. The roughly 14,400 tickets for Springsteen's Nov. 20 show sold out without a major hitch, Remesch said. The night before the tickets went on sale, he worried it wouldn't sell out, thereby proving Baltimore's reputation as a second-tier tour stop.

Don't get me wrong. Losing the Preakness would, in fact, take another piece of the city's and state's soul. After all, you can't get world-class port-a-potty racing just anywhere. Or horse racing. I wonder what it would take, though, to convince the people in charge that basketball, and all kinds of other indoor sports and entertainment events, are also part of Baltimore's soul, and just as worthy of saving - or at least caring about. The city is still being underserved by the decrepit, obsolete 1st Mariner Arena.

Towson University officials have offered representatives of the Rodgers Forge community several alternative sites for a proposed $45 million sports arena on the campus, all of them adjacent to the current arena. While the residents said none of the options presented at a meeting Monday night was satisfactory, they agreed to continue discussions next week. "It was a good first step, but we need to continue to talk until the university understands the residents' point of view," Patrick Foretich, a Rodgers Forge resident, said yesterday.

Knife-wielding man shot by city officer identified Police have identified the man who was shot and killed by officers Sunday after he stabbed a pregnant woman. Brendan J. Singleton, 19, was shot by police after being hit with a Taser and refusing to drop a knife, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Police said the incident occurred in the 200 block of N. Luzerne Ave. after Singleton broke into a home about 3 a.m. and attacked a 26-year-old woman described as his estranged girlfriend. Singleton was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

They arrived with numerous signs saying "Halt TU arena now." They circulated a petition against the proposed $45 million Towson Center expansion, and they besieged university officials with questions as to why the building was being constructed. Towson University officials provided campus neighbors with maps, architectural drawings and a construction timetable for the expansion project last night during a meeting between university officials and Rodgers Forge residents. Groundbreaking for the 5,000-seat addition to the center is scheduled for spring 2010.

When Towson University officials unveil plans for a new campus arena at a community meeting tomorrow, they are likely to find many residents dismayed by the prospect of a 5,000-seat auditorium in their backyards. Officials, planners and architects for the $45 million Towson Center expansion project, which is included in the 10-year master plan for the campus, will present drawings and discuss a timetable - construction is scheduled for later this year - during the session. The proposal includes a new arena and renovations that would make the current arena's gymnasium into practice courts, mostly for basketball and volleyball teams.

The $300 million sports and entertainment venue to replace Baltimore's aging 1st Mariner Arena should be an iconic structure developed with "maximum private financial support," city officials said yesterday in a formal request for developer proposals. State and city leaders had announced plans last month to tear down the arena and replace it with an 18,500-seat facility - one large enough to draw the biggest concerts and acts and potentially attract a professional basketball or hockey team.

Suddenly on August 13, 2008, VINCENT "Jimmy" D., of Pikesville; beloved husband of Helen M. Arena (nee Bowers); devoted father of James R. Arena and his wife Sherry, Theresa "Terry" M. Berry and her husband Steven and Joseph V. Arena and his wife Anne; dear brother of Mary E. Longo, Rose M. Mettle, Elizabeth A. Klein; loving grandfather of Julia, Ashley, Avery, Jessica, Alyssa and Domenic. Also survived by numerous nieces and nephews. Friends may call at LORING BYERS FUNERAL DIRECTORS INC., 8728 Liberty Road (2 miles west of beltway exit 18B)

Here's how Baltimore gets the world's attention, attracts an NBA or NHL franchise, pulls in a major corporate sponsor, establishes another tourist destination a couple of blocks from Camden Yards, helps foster a new sector of jobs in Maryland and reduces long-term operating costs of its new downtown arena: with pizza made from tomatoes grown on the premises. It is absolutely essential that the city recruit a visionary architect to design the new arena, and this design must be green from the ground up - even below ground - and I'm not kidding about including a terrace or hothouse for a tomato garden.

By choosing to build a new arena on the west side of downtown, Baltimore is placing a $300 million bet on an area that has long struggled to come to life. One problem has been 1st Mariner Arena itself, a 46-year-old albatross with only one entrance and no street-level retail outlets - a hulk that stifles the blocks around it. Proponents of a new downtown arena call the project a shot in the arm for the west side, while critics said yesterday that a mega-project is a bad fit for that area.