Maryland Stadium Authority

1995Oct. 20: Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Maryland Stadium Authority chairman John Moag fax a proposal to the NFL that states Baltimore will retain funding for a new stadium if the league passes a legally binding resolution by the end of the year that guarantees either an expansion team or a relocated franchise.Oct. 27: Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell and Moag meet at a private terminal at BWI and sign the 30-year lease agreement that brings the team to Baltimore.Nov. 6: Modell and Glendening announce the Browns' move at a news conference at Camden Yards.

Maryland is close to completing arrangements that would have the football team play Georgia Tech at the Ravens' new NFL stadium next season. Athletic director Debbie Yow said that she hasn't received a contract from the Maryland Stadium Authority, but that a deal that would pay Maryland approximately $800,000 before expenses is nearly completed."

ISSUE: The Maryland Stadium Authority last week recommended demolishing or moving a 19th-century home in downtown Annapolis to make way for an estimated $20 million National Sailing Hall of Fame. Its long-awaited report said that trying to incorporate the modest house, one of the original pieces of the waterfront streetscape and now used as office space for the Department of Natural Resources Police, would be "too challenging." Lee Tawney, executive director of the National Sailing Hall of Fame, said his group is consulting with the Maryland Historical Trust on the best way to move forward on plans to develop the site, while respecting its historic nature.

The Maryland Stadium Authority ratified yesterday an agreement under which the lettered facade of Memorial Stadium will be kept intact as city-owned property, state officials said. The state's contract with Potts and Callahan to demolish the stadium was amended to add about $1 million to the original $2.5 million cost. The authority will hire a consultant and contractor to give advice on how to stabilize and support the 10-foot-high wall. Under the agreement between the state and the city, the memorial wall will be maintained by the city after the site is turned over to the nonprofit Govans Ecumenical Development Corp.

The Maryland Stadium Authority yesterday approved a five-year lease with the Orioles for the much-contested space at the bottom of the B&O warehouse.The Orioles said they plan to use that space for a sports art gallery, at the cost of $20 monthly for each of the space's 5,800 square feet.The authority had originally planned to give the space to a medical firm, Physicians Quality Care, but the Orioles declined to approve the use.Though an arbitrator gave the authority the go-ahead to award the space to the medical firm, it relented once the Orioles came forward with their plan.

Baltimore officials started work yesterday on filling out the application form the NFL has sent out to potential expansion cities.After receiving the form, a steering committee from the Maryland Stadium Authority and the Greater Baltimore Committee met to go over it in detail yesterday."

Baltimore's hopes for luring the NFL's Bengals officially were dashed late last night when the Cincinnati City Council, after several tense hours of debate, approved a financing plan to build new stadiums for the Bengals and baseball's Reds.The 5-4 vote came well after an afternoon deadline the team had set for completing talks with Cincinnati, but Bengals owner Mike Brown said he intends to stay in town."The Bengals belong in Cincinnati and I've never felt any other way, and this decision sets out a plan by which we can remain a Cincinnati team," Brown said in a written statement.

There still may be a dome in Baltimore's future.Even though the city's new football team and the Maryland Stadium Authority plan to build an open-air stadium at Camden Yards, the state is considering incorporating the requirements for a roof into the structure's base.Doming the structure would add greatly to the events that can be held, from circuses to conventions. It also could be lucrative: Under their agreement, the NFL team and state will split the profits of non-NFL events at the stadium.

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.

A local T-shirt vendor who applied for the trademark on "Camden Yards" before the name was picked for the new stadium has passed initial federal trademark review -- an action that does not guarantee him the rights to the name but moves him a step closer.Roy Becker of Arnold has passed the review of the trademark examiner and soon will appear in a federal publication as the owner of "Camden Yards" when it is used on clothing. Opponents will have 30 days to respond before the name becomes his, said Gil Weidenfeld, a spokesman for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.