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BUSINESS
THURSDAY JANUARY 5. 2006
Sports 1C
At Bobcats Arena, goal is
good time for customers
FILE PHOTO/WADE NASH
From the moment fans enter Charlotte Bobcats Arena, staff are drilled
in making their experience a memorable one.
By David Dawson
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Long time season ticket holders
Frank and Wendy Rosen were in
awe of the new Charlotte Bobcats
Arena. However, they were wowed
by the ^ceptional customer service
at Bobcats’ basketball games.
“Tbe people are all around saying
Welcome to the Charlotte Bobcats
Arena’. They do make you feel wel
comed there. They do it with a anile
and you know they mean it,” said
Mrs. Rosen.
That’s sweet music to Marlene
Hendricks, director of guest services
at the Arena. Hendricks, who joined
the Bobcats after six years with the
Miami Heat in the same capacity
lives and breathes a WOW philoso
phy to customer service. As the cre
ator of the philosophy and training
program for arena employees that
stand for Welcome guests; Offer
assistance; Wear a warm and
friendly smile.
See ARENA/7C
BofA doses
$35liHon
deallw
MBNA Com
By Natalie Gotl
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RALEIGH - Bank of America Corp. completed its
acquisition of MBNA Corp. on Sunday in a deal
worth about $34.2 billion, the nation’s second-
largest bank said.
Charlotte-based Bank of America now has 40 mil
lion active credit card accounts on its ledger, mak
ing it one of the leading worldwide payments-ser-
vices companies and issuers of credit, debit and
prepaid cards.
“Tbday marks the start of an exciting new era for
Bank of America in credit cards,” said Kenneth D.
Lewis, chairman and chief executive oflScer.
MBNA is the leader in so-called affinity market
ing with its relationships with organizations rang
ing from the National Football League to L.L. Bean
and hundreds of medical organizations.
Hie acquisition has raised concerns in Maine,
whei’e MBNA has about 3,000 employees, with
2,000 of them in,the Belfast area, making it among
the state’s top 10 employers. Besides Belfast,
MBNA has call carters in Portland, Brunswick,
Farmington, Orono, Presque Isle and Fort Kent.
It’s not known what the impact of the merger will
be in Maine.
Under terms of the agreement aimounced Jime
30, shareholders of Wilmington, Dd.-based MBNA
will recave 0.5009 common shares of Bank of
America plus $4,125 in cash for each of their
shares.
Bank of America plans to eliminate 6,000 jobs
across both companies, which the Charlotte-based
bank has said will help it achieve overall cost sav
ings of $850 million by 2007.
Before the deal, MBNA had about 28,000 employ
ees overall. Bank of America had more than
177,000 employees.
In 2004, Bank of America acquired FleetBoston
Financial for $48 billion.
Chevron fights
allegations of
environment,
rights abuses
By Terence Chea
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO - A young boy holds out a
deformed hand. A woman is missing a lower leg
that was amputated to remove a tumor. A gaimt
middle-aged man lays in a hammock dying of stom
ach cancer.
Tlie haunting images displayed in a photo exhib
it at San Francisco City Hall claim to document the
devastating effects of more than three decades of oil
extraction in Eicuador’s Amazon rainforest.
Humberto Piagu^e came to help launch the
exhibit and seek justice from the powerful petrole
um company he blames for sickoiing his people
and poisoning his homeland. He’s one of 30,000
plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that allies San
Ramon-based Chevron Corp. failed to cle^ up bil-
hons of gallons of toxic waste dumped in pristine
rainforest in Ecuador, where a lengthy trial is
under way
‘We’ve lived there for thousands of years, and
we’ve never had diseases lilffi this before,” Piaguaje,
a leader of Ecuador’s Secoya tribe, said in Spanish.
We want Chevron to do a true deaniq^ of the areas
they contaminated*
Chevron, one of the world’s largest oil companies,
has denied human ri^ts and environmental viola-
tiois in the 180 coimtries whoe it operates, but
allegations of abuse threatoi its pubUc image
See CHEVRON/7C
PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON
Travis Faye of the Charlotte Krunk goes up for a basket during a November game at Cricket Arena. The American Basketball
Association franchise suspended operations last month due to financial instability among other ABA teams.
Airball for minor league
American Basketball Association’s woes shutters Charlotte team
By C. Jemal Horton
FOR IHE CHARLOTTE POTT
Ifen games into its inaugural season, the
Charlotte Krunk professional basketball
team has suspended operations, according
to the team’s president and co-owner.
Duane “Spyder” Hu^es told The Post
that the financial woes of other teams in
the American Basketball Association
caused repeated scheduling confficts and,
ultimately, led to economic difficulties for
the Krunk, leaving him no choice but to
shut down the oiganization.
Hughes said the move already has cost
him and his fianc4, Krunk co-owner Lisa
Dillard, “well over $160,000” - and things
could get worse if he cannot reach a favor
able settlement with Cricket Arena, which
was slated to host all the team’s home
games this season
“At this point, I don’t think there’s going
to be another ABA game played in
Charlotte this season,” Hughes, a former
rap star in 1980s, said in a telephone inter
view fi*om his Atlanta home.
“It’s been the strangest set of circum
stances. Every other team in our division
had already folded, and we were the last of
the Mohicans. We had a certain business
model and knew it was going to take "X
amoimt of dollars to field a team for the
entire season. That’s why I had concerts
scheduled at our games, because I knew
basketball, on its own, in a m^or-league
setting, wasn’t going to be able to maintain
See BASKETBALL7C
South Carolina rings
in the new year by
discarding minibottles
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The year 2005
wasn’t the only thing being toasted
away in South Carolina: Partygoers
and bar owners finally said good rid
dance to the minibottle.
For 22 years, South Carolina law
required bartenders to use the tiny
1.7-ounce bottles most often associ
ated with airplanes and hotel mini-
bars.
Then, last year. South Carolinians
voted the minibottles out, and law
makers followed through earlier
this year by aj^roving regulations
to give bars and restamants the
choice to pour fium the big bottles
starting Jan 1.
With the law change, the state’s
method for taxing liquor sales
changed, too. South Carolina col
lected 25 cents for every minibottle
sold; now, it will charge 5 percent on
every drink
“I thou^t it was gcdng to be us -
South Carolina - and the aiiplanes
forever,” said Matthew Andrade, cd-
ebrating with a Red Bull and vodka
poured fium a liter bottle at Rookie’s
See SOUTH/7C
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