The Tourism and Sports Authority, the group that will decide where to build the 73,000-seat stadium, now may not narrow the list of potential sites to two, but rather could pick a winner before the self-imposed mid-February deadline.

"My goal is to have the site selected by mid-February, whether by taking the step of narrowing the field or just picking the site," says Jim Grogan, chairman of the Authority. "I don't want to be locked in either way."

The Authority has aggressively scheduled the groundbreaking on the domed stadium for March, in hopes of having the facility ready for the start of the 2003 NFL season.

The communities in competition for the stadium have until 5 p.m. this Friday to submit their detailed plans, which include financial details on how they will pay for the millions in infrastructure costs that will accompany development of the stadium. Each community will also be given an opportunity to make a 20-minute presentation to the Authority the following day.

Whichever community gets the stadium is sure to reap millions of dollars more in sales tax revenues and will see a mushroom of ancillary development in the area around the stadium.

Those in contention include: Tempe, with a site near the Tempe Town Lake southeast of Washington Street and Priest Drive; Tempe/Mesa, with a site at the southeast corner of the Loop 101 and Loop 202 that's on the border between the two suburbs; downtown Phoenix, with two possible sites near Bank One Ballpark; Avondale, with a site near Thomas Road and 99th Avenue; and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, with a site along the Beeline Highway in the East Valley.

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