USC adds life to its showcase facility

Colonial Center gets a new name; trustees approve use of $21 million in bonds

The Colonial Center is being renamed the Colonial Life Arena.

File photograph

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As expected, the executive committee of USC’s board of trustees Tuesday approved changing the name of the Gamecocks’ 18,000-seat basketball arena from the Colonial Center to the Colonial Life Arena.

The change is part of the Columbia-based insurance provider’s efforts to re-brand itself as “Colonial Life.”

Financial terms will remain the same. In 2003, Colonial Life agreed to pay USC $5.5 million over 12 years for the naming rights to the $65 million arena that opened in 2002.

“Colonial Life, which has been an outstanding partner with the University for a number of years, has recently undertaken a company-wide re-branding effort and this name change is consistent with that initiative,” USC athletics director Eric Hyman said. “This is the first step in the process of re-branding the Colonial Center.”

The next step is replacing the more than 100 signs in the facility before the start of basketball season. Colonial Life will pick up the cost of the new signs, which will incorporate logos from both the university and the company.

In other matters Tuesday, the executive committee authorized the use of $21 million in athletics revenue bonds for facilities. USC chief financial officer Rick Kelly said $15 million would go toward the purchase of the farmer’s market, which the athletics department intends to use for football parking after taking possession of the property in 2010.

The other $6 million will cover about half of the construction costs of the $12.8 million Dodie Anderson Academic Center; the remaining funds will come from the benefactor from Greer for whom the facility is named.

Work on “the Dodie,” as it is being called, is expected to begin in the fall.

Kelly said USC has $49 million in outstanding athletics bonds — $19 million of which was used on Williams-Brice Stadium renovations and $30 million that was used for the riverfront baseball stadium under construction.

The General Assembly last year approved a measure to increase the debt ceiling from $60 million to $200 million on athletics revenue bonds for USC and Clemson.

Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.

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