Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe HOUSTON ARENA TO PROVIDE MORE CONCESSIONS A minority group of Houston concessionaires has won approval for a plan to share in more food and drink sales at the new downtown arena. Advertisement The Houston Chronicle reports the groups had been "dueling" with the owner of the Houston Rockets to get a larger share of the lucrative sales business in the new sports complex. This week black and Hispanic leaders struck a deal with team owner Leslie Alexander that is similar to an earlier "joint venture contract" struck between minority business owners and the prime contractor of Minute Maid Park. The publication says this latest agreement is actually a better deal for minorities than the earlier contract. Both sides report they are pleased with the way the issue was resolved. NEW ORLEANS ARENA TEAM GETS LOGO The New Orleans Voodoo, the latest Arena Football League team to join the league, has chosen the logo for its initial season. The team, slated to play in the city's New Orleans Arena, beginning a year from now, has picked red, purple and black as its official colors. The New Orleans Times-Picayune says the logo features a skull in a top hat with bones beneath it in the shape of the letter "V" for Voodoo. Advertisement Meanwhile, the league Commissioner David Baker tells the paper even considering the in-your-face, fast-paced nature of arena football play, the new insignia is a "bit edgy." INDIANAPOLIS FANS OF THE PRESIDENT MIFFED City officials in Indianapolis are downplaying an incident this week in which fewer people got to see President Bush than planned. The Indianapolis Star says even before Bush began speaking at the Pepsi Coliseum, the doors were closed and hundreds waiting outside, tickets in hand, were denied access to his speech. One delegation of GOP supporters who had come in from the Indiana 9th Congressional District was not able to get in. Those outside watched on TV monitors and some elderly people were taken to shady places out of the sun. One GOP official from Washington County blamed the city's Democratic Mayor Bart Peterson for the mix-up. Marvin Clark told reporters it was obvious more tickets had been printed than the number of seats set up in the stadium. MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE BURSTING AT SEAMS A popular institution of higher learning in the Twin Cities is, for the first time, having to send rejection slips to many applicants. The University of Minnesota, because of a quickly increasing student population, is informing many would-be enrollees there just isn't room for them in the upcoming semester. Advertisement The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says most of those sent the notices are surprised. The school normally has had a liberal acceptance policy, allowing in any student with sufficient high school grades and the funds to apply. Ironically, at a time when the metropolitan school is turning away applicants, many smaller Minnesota schools are becoming ghost towns. The publication says several of the Gopher State's two-year junior colleges have fallen out of favor even though credits earned there are fully transferable to major four-year schools.
