Maryland Stadium Authority

Another international soccer match coming to M&T Stadium

By Liz Farmer
Daily Record Business Writer 

ANNAPOLIS — Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium has landed another multimillion dollar revenue-generating soccer match to be played this July between two high-profile European teams.

The announcement is expected shortly by the Baltimore Ravens, according to the Maryland Stadium Authority, the state agency that leases the stadium to the team.

The event will come one year after Baltimore raised its status in the soccer community by hosting a sold-out exhibition match between England’s Chelsea Football Club and Italy’s AC Milan. That game generated roughly $20 million in economic impact and caught the attention of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer.

Stadium Authority cuts budget

LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
September 2, 2009 12:11 AM

The Maryland Stadium Authority voted to cut its 2011 budget by $10 million Tuesday in an effort to curb spending and minimize the state’s funding of the agency.

“We took our expenses back to 2009 levels and what we actually spent this [fiscal] year,” said Chairman John Morton III after the meeting at the Camden Yards warehouse. “We felt it was important that we ran with the same expense load and even more important that we don’t ask the state for any additional funding than we needed.”

To afford the cut to $75.4 million, an 11.2 percent decrease from the stadium authority’s projected budget this year of $85.4 million, the board approved cutting the position of general counsel from the payroll, limiting staff expenses and will likely have to limit the number of feasibility studies it approves during the 2011 fiscal year.

The fiscal year for stadium authority, the governing body for the state’s sports and entertainment facilities, runs from July 1 to June 30.

The position of general counsel was last filled by Alison Asti, who also served as the executive director for her last two years before being asked to leave both positions in September of 2007.

Although David Raith, the chief financial officer for the stadium authority, would not say how much the position cut would save the agency, The Daily Record reported in 2007 that Asti earned more than $225,000 a year for her roles. Had she stayed on as general counsel and director of development after being fired as executive director, her contract would have guaranteed her $200,000 a year.

Much work before a green flag drops in Baltimore

LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
July 7, 2009 8:15 PM

City and state officials are behind it. The economic impact study estimates $100 million could be in store for Baltimore.

With the office buildings as a backdrop, safety workers untangle cars during April’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, which features the same type of cars that organizers want to bring to Baltimore in 2011.But bringing an IndyCar Series street race to the Inner Harbor also represents a massive logistical responsibility and is far from a sure thing in 2011.

From repaving streets to rerouting traffic and public transportation routes to installing sound barriers to keep out noise pollution in surrounding neighborhoods, a lot of elements need to be assessed before bringing the race here is a done deal.

“It’s an enormous, enormous undertaking,” said Terry Hasseltine, director of sports marketing for the state.

But Hasseltine and other city and state officials seem poised to do what they can to bring the event, and its estimated spending impact of $70 million to $100 million, here in two years.

Maryland launches online sports venue directory

LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
May 8, 2009 9:04 PM

With the launch of a new online directory detailing the state’s more than 600 sports facilities, officials Left to right, Cal Ripken, Jr., President and CEO of Ripken Baseball; Christian Johansson, Secretary of DBED; Terrance Hasseltine, Director of the Maryland Office of Sports Marketing and John Morton III, Chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, announce new state online sports venue directory.say Maryland is finally “ready to play” as a destination for world-class sporting events.

“This is a $182 billion industry and is growing annually,” Terrance Hasseltine, the state’s sports marketing director, said at a press conference Friday at Camden Yards. “It’s time we go out for a bigger piece of that proverbial pie.”

Hasseltine was joined in the announcement by Cal Ripken Jr., whose Ripken Baseball operates the largest youth baseball complex in the state, and representatives from the Department of Business and Economic Development and the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Dew Tour not returning to Baltimore

LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
March 2, 2009 11:08 AM

After kicking off its season in Baltimore for the last two years, the 2009 AST Dew Tour will bypass Baltimore, state officials announced Monday.

Last June’s stop drew more than 52,500 fans to the parking lots surrounding M&T Bank Stadium over four days and generated about $10 million in economic impact, according to city tourism officials. Michael Frenz, executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, said they were disappointed in the decision but he hoped the loss would be buffered by other sporting events coming to Baltimore this year.

“The economic impact is not so great for us to say all is lost,” he said, noting that the state Office of Sports Marketing’s director, Terry Hasseltine, is continuing to work on bringing new and return events to Maryland such as the NCAA men’s lacrosse final four, which Baltimore will host again in 2010 and 2011.

The stadium authority said a conflict with the Orioles’ schedule in June and a change in the tour’s format contributed to the decision.

“We’re disappointed they are not coming this summer and we welcome them back in the future,” said Frenz.

Stadium authority says it’s poised to bring more events to Md.

LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
February 11, 2009 6:47 PM

ANNAPOLIS — Fresh off of winning the bid to host the 2010 and 2011 NCAA lacrosse Final Four in Baltimore, Maryland Stadium Authority Chairman John Morton III told legislators Wednesday that while the agency expected a decrease in revenue this year, it was poised to be a revenue generator for the state’s future.

“When I worked on the [2012] Olympic bid, one of the things we took away from that is that there were hundreds of events taking place every year that our state was just missing,” Morton told the House Appropriations Committee’s Education and Economic Development Subcommittee. “We had the transportation and infrastructure in place ... but no consolidated effort or logistic approach to how we were going to loop in on this.”

With a new sports marketing director in place who last month submitted a report stating that Maryland had at least 380 venues that could be marketed to the national and international sporting world, Morton said progress had been made but was far from complete.