Pradeep’s raise

UCSD chancellor Pradeep Khosla got a 3 percent pay hike from University of California regents at their September 14 meeting here, boosting his annual base salary to $462,684, retroactively effective as of this past July 1.

The amount may sound generous, but, explains a UC staff report, “This year, consistent with past years, most of UC’s chancellors continue to rank in the bottom quartile when compared to their counterparts at other Association of American Universities institutions, with regard to base salary and total cash compensation.”

Beverly Hills vulture capitalist Tom Gores, who bought the Union-Tribune from David Copley in 2009 and sold out to Republican mogul Douglas Manchester in 2011, is now the owner of the Detroit Pistons. But the professional basketball team, whose new downtown arena was financed by substantial public subsidies, has turned out to be a big money-loser.

“The Pistons lost $63.2 million before collecting revenue sharing last season, the largest loss by a wide margin, despite being one of the NBA’s larger markets. (The team received $17.6 million in revenue sharing to help offset the losses),” according to a report by ESPN. “Such shortfalls help explain why the Pistons wanted to move out of a building their parent company owned far into the suburbs and relocate to a new arena in downtown Detroit this season, hoping that it helps boost revenue.”