Briefs

by John Temple Ligon

Whole new team

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has almost 22,000 students - with an additional 12,000 planned for the coming decade - and no football team. Estimates to start a team run from $12 million to $25 million and another $5 million a year to operate. The Panther stadium could use the rent. Careful, UNCC: The top five best paid NCAA Division I- A coaches are averaging $3 million a year. On a more positive note: Ohio State's football profit last year was $28 million, and that plus basketball paid for a lot of non- revenue sports.

Pants and more

Before a recent acquisition, Berle Manufacturing, based on James Island, made more than 750,000 pairs of pants annually that were distributed through 3,000 retail outlets across the country. Last November, Berle acquired Barry Bricken, a New York manufacturer and retailer of men's and women's clothing. About 85% of Barry Bricken's business is women's apparel.

College of Charleston gains an arena

The College of Charleston's new basketball arena will seat 5,000 fans at a total cost of $40 million to include renovation of the existing Johnson Center. For a $2 million contribution, Carolina First Bank gets the arena named the Carolina First Center.

Hydrogen fueling

Last month, The Columbia Star advocated at least one hydrogen fueling station to support one hydrogen- fueled automobile in town to demonstrate Columbia's lead in the technology. In 2004, California passed an initiative to put 20,000 hydrogen- fueled vehicles on the state's highways and to open 250 hydrogen fueling stations to support them.

Population gains in the past year

North Carolina gained 184,046 in its population between July 2005 and July 2006, a growth rate of 2.1%; South Carolina, 74,000, 1.7%; Texas, 579,275, 2.5%.

Coming to Columbia, we're certain

The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 began this country's energy conservation movement in earnest with smaller cars and better gas mileage. The movement accelerated with the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis. Mayor Robert "Environmental Bob" Coble drove a city- bought V8- powered Chevy Suburban for the past eight years, barreling through the recent oil price shocks. Reportedly, he's shifting to a city- bought 2007 Ford Escape in a week or two. With Columbia's new energy conservation consciousness, green buildings are next. For example, as of last month, Boston's building code requires all private construction of at least 50,000 square feet to meet the minimum criteria of the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in energy and Environmental Design standards for new projects.

Coming to Columbia, we hope

Gainesville, Florida, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, each home to their state's flagship university, have car- sharing businesses where a car can be rented by the hour for about $8 and $10. The customers are pre- registered members who pay an annual fee between $40 and $50. For in- town errands that take less than two hours, the charge should be less than $20, which beats cab fare. For the occasional overnight, 24- hour rental, the cars can go for a competitive $55 to $60, about what a rental agency charges. Point being, it's a national trend, but by the time it gets to Gainesville and Chapel Hill, Columbia is due.

US Airways lays it on the line

US Airways upped its ante from $8.6 billion to $10.3 billion to merge with Delta Air Lines, declaring the offer expires February 1. Meanwhile, Northwest Airlines and Delta are talking merger of a friendlier sort. More favorable to Columbia, where Delta and US Airways overlap and compete, the Northwest deal should leave the competition in play, while the combined US Airways and Delta kills local competition.

Per capita comparisons with California

Last year, California Governor Schwarzenegger succeeded with a $42.7 billion bond package to help build his state's aging infrastructure. This year, he's proposing an additional $43.3 billion in bonds mostly for college buildings, prisons, and dams. Schwarzenegger's two bond bills, $86 billion, amount to about $2,400 per capita for his 36.1 million constituents, which implies $10 billion in bonds for South Carolina's 4.3 million people. SC Senator Leatherman (R- Florence), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, predicts a 2007 state bond bill of about $450 million. For the coming year, Schwarzenegger's spending plan totals $143.4 billion, a 1% increase over last year and about $4,000 per Californian; while Governor Sanford proposes $6.5 billion, roughly a 5% increase and $1,500 for each South Carolinian. Obviously, for Schwarzenegger to keep his job, there has to be a grander industrial base and a higher per capita income in California than in South Carolina. California's gross domestic product is $1,622 billion, almost 12 times South Carolina's $140 billion. If California were a separate country, it would have the world's sixth largest economy.

The power of the incumbency

Governor Sanford raised more than $8.5 million to defeat challenger Senator Tommy Moore of Clearwater. Moore raised $3.1 million.