"Where's the excitement?" asks Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore. "The games seem to be lacking a defining characteristic. They lack the tension of a Nancy Kerrigan-Tanya Harding ice skating duel or the Norwegian winter wonderland of Lillehammer." Burton contends that the men's hockey competition is the only bright spot in the Winter Games, which open Friday in Nagano, Japan. The National Hockey League canceled part of its schedule to allow its players to compete. "That's unheard of," says Burton. "They're giving up weeks of visibility for the good of the game." Burton is a former sportswriter, product marketer for Miller Beer and sports marketing executive. He still serves as a sports marketing consultant for various national and international professional sports leagues. SOURCE: Rick Burton, director of the UO James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and marketing instructor in the UO Charles H. Lundquist College of Business, (541) 346-3297; e-mail, rburton@oregon.uoregon.edu. -30- #T-6059/Day, Sports Mktg, Special