The University of South Carolina is seeking a declaratory judgment from the state Supreme Court related to its renovation of Williams-Brice Stadium and a contract dispute with a current Gamecock Club member.
As reported by Ben Portnoy of Sports Business Journal, a petition filed in the South Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday and obtained by SBJ centers on George Lee III, who more than 30 years ago received privileged seats as part of a campaign granting “Lifetime Member” status within the Gamecock Club for naming South Carolina as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy valued at $100,000 or more.
At stake is whether Lee and roughly 200 other “Lifetime Members” can assert rights to the stadium’s new premium suites — assets expected to generate around $200 million over the next decade and viewed as essential funding for the renovation, Portnoy reported.
A South Carolina athletic department spokesperson provided the following statement when reached by SBJ:
“South Carolina Athletics does not take the filing of this petition lightly. The potential challenges presented here are significant to the Williams–Brice Stadium Reimagination project. We are seeking a legal remedy to address these complex matters so that we can continue to compete in a highly competitive landscape, create new and important revenue streams to benefit all Gamecock Athletics programs and student-athletes, and ensure our fans can enjoy a world-class experience in our stadium for years to come.”
Per Portnoy's reporting, South Carolina is in the process of a $350 million renovation of Williams-Brice Stadium that includes 42 suites. The suites range in price from $77,000 to $150,000 and require a significant capital gift in order to access purchasing them.
An email in the petition dated Nov. 4 saw Lee, who is a licensed attorney in South Carolina, suggested, “Several of these Lifetime Members have stated that they intend to purchase suites at $150,000 annually without payment or donation of any premium.”
"The university contends Lee and the roughly 200 Lifetime Members are guaranteed access to four season football tickets, but not rights to the new premium suites," Portnoy wrote Wednesday. "The suites now being constructed, the university believes, are not simply better tickets than those available at Williams-Brice Stadium when Lee signed his contract in 1990, but a fundamentally different product."
Sources briefed on the matter told SBJ the concern is that if these contracts are applicable to the new spaces it could jeopardize the revenues that are an impetus for the project.
The petition is not expected to impact the timeline of the Williams-Brice Stadium renovation as the university seeks clarity on the rights of Lee and these Lifetime Members.
“It kind of tries to paint me as the guy that wants to blow up the whole project,” Lee said when reached by SBJ on Tuesday night. “And that’s not true. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
According to Portnoy, Lee has twice before taken South Carolina to court related to this specific contract. The court initially sided with his stance that he couldn’t be required to pay a seat license fee as a prerequisite to his “opportunity to purchase” football season tickets.
The court did, however, rule against Lee when he and others argued the university and Gamecock Club breached this same contract by assigning them football parking without, in their view, “any particular parking space or selection priority.” The court held the contract did not give Lee and others such priority with respect to football parking spots.
“All I’ve done is ask questions, and now I’ve had to go out and retain counsel this afternoon," Lee told SBJ. “... Been a Gamecock Club member for 40 years. My family’s been Gamecock Club members for 60 years. It just really surprised me. All I wanted was clarification," I never wanted a suite.”
