THE SIDELINES : Cow Palace May Get NHL Team

SAN FRANCISCO — If the National Hockey League agrees to an expansion franchise for the San Francisco Bay Area for the 1991-92 season, the team will begin play in the Cow Palace, it was reported today.

The team would move to San Jose when that city completes construction of a new arena, perhaps as soon as the fall of 1992, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle. The 50-year-old Cow Palace is in Daly City.

George and Gordon Gund, owners of the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars, signed a lease agreement with the Cow Palace over the weekend, but it is contingent on their being granted an expansion franchise by the league. They have agreed to sell the North Stars to Howard Baldwin, former owner of the Hartford Whalers, if they get the Bay Area expansion franchise.

The NHL’s Board of Governors is expected to act on the proposed sale of the North Stars to Baldwin, who would keep the team in Minnesota, and the Bay Area expansion franchise when it meets next Tuesday in Chicago.