TAXPAYERS GETTING BIT ON THE HAND BY PANTHERS?

     ESPN's Stuart Scott reported that taxpayer money is being
used to build a practice facility for the Panthers on the campus
of the private Wofford College.  $500,000 is coming from the
Economic Development Administration, a Commerce Department agency
that assists financially strapped areas, and $750,000 from the
Appalachian Regional Commission.  Tom Schatz, President of
Citizens Against Government Waste:  "The original intention of
the ARC was not to build football stadiums.  It was to help
educate people and get them out of poverty."  Appalachian
Regional Commission Co-Chair Jesse White:  "The way we looked at
it was we were not participating in funding the facility for the
Panthers.  We were participating in helping a local college
develop a facility in a high unemployment, high poverty area."
Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson refused ESPN's request for an
interview ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 9/1).