Maryland Stadium Authority

A soccer rivalry that has endured for decades in England will hit Baltimore this summer. Liverpool F.C. and the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, two of Europe's most storied soccer teams and long-time foes in the English Premier League, will play an exhibition game at M&T Bank Stadium on July 28. The joint announcement was made Friday by the Ravens, Maryland Stadium Authority and Maryland Office of Sports Marketing. “It's unusual to get two Premier League teams playing a match in the United States.

When the Orioles open their season Friday, it's a safe bet that while many in attendance will be rooting for the home team (and some for the visitors, alas), all will appreciate the venue. Oriole Park at Camden Yards has remained one of the great showplaces of Major League Baseball even 20 years after its first opening day game. Yet even today, some naysayers still question whether the public investment in Camden Yards was worthwhile. Economists point out that the direct financial return on stadiums is not particularly good - a criticism heard two decades ago, as well, by the way - and that some alternative public investment of $110 million might have served downtown better.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens is seeking the Maryland Stadium Authority's help in building the Natatorium and Special Olympics Complex planned for Glen Burnie in 2005. Owens requested yesterday that the authority move immediately to secure legislative approval for its involvement in the 26-acre facility, which will include a full Olympic-size pool, water slide, ball fields, a gym and a weight room. The project has received $500,000 from the Maryland General Assembly, and Owens plans to include $500,000 for the planned complex in her 2003 budget, which will be introduced next week.

A soccer rivalry that has endured for decades in England will hit Baltimore this summer. Liverpool F.C. and the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, two of Europe's most storied soccer teams and long-time foes in the English Premier League, will play an exhibition game at M&T Bank Stadium on July 28. The joint announcement was made Friday by the Ravens, Maryland Stadium Authority and Maryland Office of Sports Marketing. “It's unusual to get two Premier League teams playing a match in the United States.

Herbert J. Belgrad has no trouble recalling the moment when Gov. Harry Hughes asked him to consider serving as oe of the charter members of the Maryland Stadium Authority.It was June 1986. It was in the governor's State House office. And, for Belgrad, a Baltimore lawyer with little knowledge of professional sports, it was a slightly unbelievable moment."In the first place, I wasn't even familiar with the legislation [creating the authority]," Belgrad recalled. "And second, as I stated then, there were any number of highly qualified persons with an interest in sports who would have given their right arms to serve the state in that capacity."

COLLEGE PARK -- John Brown had just sat down in his courtside seat at Cole Field House when the parade began.Ex-Oriole Bill Ripken was one of the first to say hello. Former Maryland basketball player Cedric Lewis stopped by, then former U.S. Senator Joe Tydings. Sportswriter John Feinstein followed.Even the referee, taking his place for the tip-off of the Maryland game, waved to Brown.It seemed that everyone in the place knew Brown, from the players he has befriended to the corporate and political elite gathered in the coveted folding chairs ringing the court.

When a new downtown football stadium opened nine years ago, the latest project of the Maryland Stadium Authority was widely praised. In just more than a decade of existence, the quasi-public agency had built an acclaimed baseball park and a new convention center for downtown Baltimore, attracted the NFL back to the city after a 12-year absence and erected a new home for that team. The agency took on some of the state's biggest projects and delivered results on time, on budget and generally to rave reviews.

The Maryland Stadium Authority approved a $70,000 feasibility study of Salisbury's Wicomico Youth and Civic Center, which will host the Harlem Globetrotters and a rodeo competition, among other events, in 2011. The stadium authority voted Tuesday in favor of the state-funded study that will evaluate costs of expanding the more-than-30-year-old complex, which proponents say need to be expanded in order to remain competitive. The county's Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism operates the civic center, and requested the study of possible projects, including renovating the existing structure and adding another on top of a parking lot across the street.

Gov. Martin O'Malley appointed longtime finance executive John Morton III as the new chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority yesterday, replacing Frederick W. Puddester, who is stepping aside after 16 months. The Authority also announced yesterday that it has hired a new executive director, Michael J. Frenz. Puddester, a former state budget director and current finance official at Johns Hopkins, will remain on the Authority. He said he told O'Malley when he was appointed that he didn't want to remain chairman for the duration of his four-year-term.

In anticipation of a possible vote to remove Alison Asti as executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, Asti's attorney released a letter yesterday defending a clause in her contract that would allow her to remain the agency's top attorney. The letter is a response to various potential arguments Asti has heard against the validity of her contract, said Andrew D. Levy of Baltimore's Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP. "Because Ms. Asti has not committed any act that provides the board with contractual right to terminate her employment as general counsel and director of development, Ms. Asti expects that the terms of her employment agreement will be honored by the board without the further involvement of legal counsel," Levy wrote in the letter to authority chairman Frederick W. Puddester.

A politically well connected developer proposes a new hotel, arena and convention center. The Maryland Stadium Authority, which is in the business of building new arenas, commissions a study from a consultant that specializes in providing services to convention centers and hotels. The consultant reports (surprise!!) that the new facilities will be a boon to the city's economy. The mayor predicts it will "spark new growth throughout the city," and the Greater Baltimore Committee head says we "can't stand still if we want to still be a significant player in the convention-tourism destination business.

A $900 million proposal to build a downtown sports and entertainment arena linked to an expanded Baltimore Convention Center would appeal to national and international convention planners seeking a "destination package" and could transform the city, according to a Maryland Stadium Authority study released Monday. Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake requested the study, which analyzed a proposal to build an 18,500-seat arena and a 500-room Sheraton Hotel, both privately financed, next to a publicly funded convention center expansion at Charles, Pratt, Sharp and Conway streets.

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber expressed frustration over D.C. United's stadium stalemate Thursday in his annual state-of-the-league address, furthering speculation that the club might soon be on the move. "We have to aggressively figure a solution out, and that solution needs to be figured out soon," Garber said. "I am concerned about where this team will be in 2012. " United plays in 50-year-old RFK Stadium, which is too big for the club and is considered unfit as a soccer venue.

The Greater Baltimore Committee's idea for an expansion of the downtown convention center coupled with a new, attached arena and expanded Sheraton hotel tower is generating understandable excitement among the group's leaders. It would solve a number of downtown Baltimore's issues at once, come with a major commitment of private financing, and boost the city's lucrative tourism industry. GBC President Donald C. Fry said this week that he expects the feasibility study being conducted by the Maryland Stadium Authority will support the project and that his group will ask the General Assembly to approve $2 million to $3 million in planning money next year.

Baltimore City will pay a third of the $150,000 cost of a Maryland Stadium Authority study to determine whether the city should build a new downtown arena linked to an expanded Baltimore Convention Center. Members of the Baltimore Convention & Tourism Board voted Monday to approve the $50,000 contribution, which will come from the budget of Visit Baltimore, the city's convention and tourism agency. The stadium authority agreed last month to study the project's feasibility and asked the city to cover part of the cost.

The Greater Baltimore Committee's proposed concept for building a new 18,500-seat arena and a 500-room hotel on Conway Street and connecting the arena to an expanded convention center has generated a deluge of media "buzz. " Reactions to the idea of combining the construction of a $500 million, privately funded new arena and hotel with an adjacent $400 million, publicly funded, expanded convention center have been largely positive. However, we should not be surprised that some naysayers are voicing concern about the need for expanding the convention center and questioning its value as a business generator.

Behind Camden Station's polished bricks and beneath its soaring cupolas, the paint has peeled and beams have turned rotten. The only obvious inhabitants are the moths flitting about the musty basement. For more than a decade, the 19th-century train depot has sat largely vacant, like a Hollywood set prettied up for the fans streaming into Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Now, after several false starts, momentum is growing for a $14 million plan to revive the city landmark that Abraham Lincoln passed through, alive and dead, and that long served as a jewel of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards will begin the 2011 baseball season with a new concessionaire, wider seats in many areas and more casual seating options as part of a campaign to coax fans from in front of their high-definition television sets and back into the downtown ballpark. The Orioles are also exploring plans to eliminate up to 12 corporate skyboxes along the left and right field lines and replace them with larger group-sales venues and party suites offering a greater variety of seating and entertainment arrangements.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have asked the Maryland Stadium Authority to pay for a feasibility study of the $900 million proposal to expand Baltimore's Convention Center and build a privately funded, 18,500-seat arena next to it. They made the request in a letter to the stadium authority's director sent May 24, the day before the Greater Baltimore Committee announced that local construction magnate Willard Hackerman had...