Facilities: Santa Clara University has announced that Stephen Schott, owner of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics, will donate $4 million toward the construction of a new baseball stadium. Schott is a 1960 Santa Clara alumnus and was a pitcher for the Broncos. The announcement follows the unanimous approval by the Santa Clara City Council of a change in its El Camino Real master plan, giving the green light to develop detailed plans for a 1,500-seat, grass-field stadium. It will be called the Stephen Schott Baseball Stadium. Preliminary plans for the $7.5 million project call for chairback seating, VIP suite, clubhouse, locker rooms, press box, batting cages, concessions, ticket office, restrooms and parking. "I'm grateful to my classmate and former Santa Clara pitcher for his generous contribution," said Santa Clara President Paul Locatelli. "This gift opens a new chapter for Broncos baseball by building on a fine tradition that Steve shares." Schott said, "This facility has been a long-time dream and is now a reality. We intend to build a state-of the-art stadium. I am as excited as the rest of the athletics department and alumni about this project." Schott has been the owner and managing partner of the A's since 1995 ... The University of South Carolina, Columbia, has announced that its Colonial Center has outdone any other college arena in the nation in terms of ticket sales for events in 2003. The school's 18,000-seat sports and entertainment facility, which opened in November 2002, ranked 22nd worldwide in the PollStar Magazine rankings, selling 216,679 tickets to its events, not including tickets sold for men's and women's basketball games last year. The Colonial Center ranked ahead of such other notable arenas as Denver's Pepsi Arena, Sacramento's ARCO Arena, Los Angeles' Staples Center, Dallas' American Airlines Center, Atlanta's Phillips Arena and Minneapolis' Target Center. In its first year of operation, the Colonial Center hosted four of the top six touring acts, including Bruce Springsteen, Toby Keith, Cher and Kenny Chesney. The South Carolina athletics department built and is the primary operator of the Colonial Center. Global Spectrum, a subsidiary of Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm that owns the Wachovia Center, the Wachovia Spectrum, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Philadelphia 76ers, manages the Colonial Center among its 32 facilities worldwide ... The University of Denver announced it will build a $5 million stadium solely for lacrosse and will name it for Peter Barton, a former Denver cable TV president and chief executive who died in September 2002. Construction of the 2,000-seat Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium will begin this summer and be completed in time for the 2005 lacrosse season. Laura Barton, Peter Barton's widow, has committed $2.5 million to the stadium, while other pledges bring the total raised to $4 million. A campaign to raise the remaining $1 million is expected to be complete by late spring, with construction to begin in June. The stadium will also provide a home for the Colorado Lacrosse Foundation, which is the Colorado chapter of US Lacrosse. The Hall of Fame of Colorado Lacrosse will be housed in the stadium's conference room.

Milestones: University of Georgia head women's basketball coach Andy Landers earned his 600th career victory February 1 in a 71-68 win over the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. With the win, Landers stood at 600-184 and became the 11th coach in Division I history to reach the plateau. Including his stint at Roane State, Landers has 682 career victories. "I know that I've been blessed in my career," Landers said afterward. "Our program has had so much support, and there's a lot of people who share in this. I enjoy every win. Our team needed a win today more than I needed No. 600." ... Radford University's women's basketball program won its 500th game January 26 with a 66-55 victory at home over Birmingham-Southern College. The 500th victory came in the program's 838th game and in its 32nd year.

-- Compiled by Gary T. Brown