The state House of Representatives has passed its spending plan, which would help create a 35,000-seat stadium for the proposed Palmetto Bowl. But there is no stadium money in the Senate's current version of the state budget.

Additionally, no champion for a football stadium has emerged in the Senate during a tight budget year. Budget debate starts Monday.

Two senators who presumably would endorse the expansion -- Yancy McGill, D-Kingstree, who attended The Citadel, and Arthur Ravenel Jr., R-Mount Pleasant -- declined to support it when the proposal came to their financing subcommittee.

"I'm not opposed to the concept of a new facility, but I am opposed to added construction to Johnson Hagood Stadium," Ravenel said Wednesday. "I have heard from a lot of people living in the area, and they don't want it."

The Citadel already is working on major renovations to the stadium, and demolition work on half of the stands has begun. Under current plans, both sides of the stadium will be rebuilt.

"The concept (of a new stadium) is good, but the biggest issue for us this year is funding," McGill said.

Further complicating the effort is the portion of the cash package hinging on approval from local governments.

Under the House plan, the state of South Carolina would provide $380,000 a year for the next 15 years to help pay for a stadium large enough to house the game during a minimum run of 10 years.

The remaining $320,000 a year would come from cash allocations from the following: Charleston, $210,000 a year; North Charleston, $40,000; Mount Pleasant, $10,000; and Charleston County, $60,000.

It is unclear how much those governments support the financial wing of the plan. Charleston County Council has not discussed the issue publicly, and Chairman Barrett Lawrimore said he had a brief chat with a stadium supporter last month but hasn't had a formal meeting about the project.

Mount Pleasant officials were noncommittal Wednesday, while North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said he's heard the pitch but isn't ready to sign on.

"We listened to them, told them we would take it under advisement but have not given any guarantees," he said Wednesday. "I want to know what advantage we will get out of it."

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said Wednesday he would recommend that the city contribute financially to the stadium if the bowl game moves forward. The project would be similar to the effort a few years ago to build the Daniel Island tennis center and bring the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament to the area, he said.

Riley declined to say whether he would recommend that the city contribute $210,000 annually, saying the amount would need further study.

If the Senate passes a budget that doesn't include a stadium funding package, the issue is by no means dead. Traditionally, once both houses of the Legislature pass their budget plans, representatives from both sides meet in a conference committee to pass a final state budget that usually includes parts of both spending plans.

House Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said he expects funding for the stadium to be approved in the conference committee, which would probably meet near the session's end June 3.

"But you never know until you go through the conference committee," he said Wednesday.

Tommy McQueeney, chairman of the Charleston Metro Sports Council's bowl committee, said the strongest selling point for the game is that, for an outlay of $700,000 a year, the state and local community would get that many times back in locally generated tax revenues. That includes revenue from hotel stays, meals and other expenditures by game visitors.

"It's no-brainer stuff," McQueeney said. "It's a home run for all five of these entities."

He also predicted the package has a long way to go and probably won't become a reality until "the eleventh hour."

The target date for the inaugural Palmetto Bowl, possibly between teams from Conference USA and the Atlantic Coast Conference, is Christmastime 2005.

At least two stadium options are being considered: further renovating The Citadel's current Johnson Hagood Stadium or erecting a new one at nearby Stoney Field. Both plans would cost millions of dollars.

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