Business Notes HOCKEY

Nowhere is hockey hotter than in icy Minnesota, which boasts more than 2,400 amateur teams and some 100,000 players. But support for the Minnesota North Stars, the state's poorly performing National Hockey League team, is so frigid that owners George and Gordon Gund are threatening to move the money-losing franchise to Oakland or San Jose unless civic officials spend $15 million to install sky boxes and other improvements in the team's aging arena in suburban Minneapolis.

Support for the North Stars hit bottom this year after the arrival of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a National Basketball Association expansion team. The newcomers are averaging a league-leading 24,000 fans a game in the downtown Minneapolis Metrodome. The North Stars attract just 11,000 fans a game, nearly 25% below the league average. Only a better arena, the Gunds argue, will save professional hockey in the state that produces more pro players than any other.