Furman's Athletic Department must be rolling in money

For the first time in years, Furman has sold all available tickets to a home basketball game.

Well, at least all the school is willing to make available.

The capacity of Timmons Arena is listed as 5,000, but the school sold less than 3,000 tickets for Saturday's home game against Davidson and declared a sellout.

That's because about 2,000 seats are blocked off by curtains and unavailable.

Timmons Arena was a White Elephant for basketball the day it opened. Terrible sight lines and seats at long distances from the court are common.

When South Carolina came to play Furman several years back, I paid $17 apiece for three seats. Once I got there, I found out they were bleacher seats -- no backs, the kind that can be pushed back against a wall -- and we had to watch the game from a terrible angle through railings with people constantly walking in front of us.

I vowed never to buy another ticket to a basketball game at Timmons, and I've held true to that pledge.

I was considering breaking over and going to see Davidson and Stephen Curry play, but my work schedule won't permit it.

I know Furman did some remodeling to try to make the arena more palatable, so maybe things aren't quite as bad as they may have been.

There's obviously some demand for additional seats for the Davidson game. Why doesn't Furman remove the curtain for this game to get some more revenue?

According to Furman's Web site, single-game basketball ticket prices range from $3 to $11, based on age and seat location. If Furman were to sell 2,000 more tickets at an average of $5, that's an additional $10,000 in revenue -- plus concession sales to the additional fans.

Is Furman's athletic program in good enough shape financially that it can ignore the prospect of an additional $10,000 to $15,000? If I were a moneyed Furman booster, I'd remind the school of that the next time it came calling with its hand out.

Politics as usual

I've tried to avoid the coverage of the inauguration of President Obama as much as possible. Before someone shouts racism or sour grapes, I can't ever remember a time I've made it a point to watch any inauguration -- even that of President Reagan, the greatest President of my lifetime.

I've always found more constructive ways to use my time. I believe I'm primarily responsible for what goes on in my life, regardless of the party in control.

I don't see a White House shift from one party to another as making much difference in my life, because -- despite the political posturing -- there's not much difference between the Democrats and Republicans in Washington. The bottom line for all of them seems to be being in position to win the next re-election bid, principles be damned.

That said, I'm a bit ticked off by what I've been hearing. President Bush, booed and serenaded with the "Nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, hey, hey, hey, good-bye" song from the crowd?

Then, the Rev. Lowery praying for the time when "white will embrace what is right." Uh, Rev. Lowery, EVERY race needs to embrace what is right.

This, from the crowd claiming to want to end the partisanship in politics, but has spent the last eight years attacking the Bush administration at every opportunity.

Nice start.

When Sens. Kennedy and Byrd had to leave the luncheon with medical issues, one of the stories reporting it had a long list of comments, some critical of the senators' histories, some critical of those criticizing the senators.

In some folks' eyes, Republicans are fair game and any criticism of Democrats is unfair.

I consider myself a conservative, not a Republican or Democrat, and vote on issues, not party affiliation.

I didn't vote for him, still I hope President Obama is the best president we've ever had. But with his planned policies and some of the folks he associates with, I don't see it happening.

Does that make me a racist or mean-spirited?

I hate the NCAA

I've had my shorts in a wad over the NCAA ever since it decided to become an agent of selective political correctness.

A prime example is the NCAA's forcing the University of Illinois shelve its Chief Illiniwek mascot while giving its blessing to Florida State's Chief Osceola

Are we to believe that every Seminole tribe member has no problems with Chief Osceola? If so, that might be the only people group of any kind to be in 100 percent agreement about something.

I also don't like the fact the NCAA is punishing South Carolina schools in awarding events because of the location of the Confederate Flag at a memorial on the Statehouse grounds. A memorial is not a place of sovereignty.

Perhaps the NCAA's efforts would be better spent trying to make sure its student-athletes were actually required to get a better education.