There were dreams of 80,000 seats when Maryland won 31 games over coach Ralph Friedgen’s first three seasons.
Then the expansion plan dipped to 65,000 after a 5-6 mark in 2004.
Now they’re talking 50 luxury boxes, 600 mezzanine seats and better sight lines for the first 10 rows at Byrd Stadium following a second straight 5-6 mark.
What happens if the team loses again this year — a dozen metal folding chairs and a couple crates?
Maryland’s growth plan has certainly fallen from its halcyon days. The 2008 season may now see 55,000 in College Park and a few new perks to an old stadium.
That’s good news, though. Maryland doesn’t need a 65,000-seat stadium, much less 80,000. That would have required converting Cole Field House into a metro stop. The Terrapins’ magic number should be closer to 60,000.
Maryland sold out last year at 51,000 with a strong home schedule that included neighboring West Virginia, Virginia and Virginia Tech, who brought lots of fans. This year, the Terps host William and Mary, Florida International and Middle Tennessee State. That combined won’t bring more than two dozen fans. What a lousy trio of games, but Maryland’s trying to return to a bowl and needs non-conference wins given the upgraded ACC.
Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow is scrambling to preserve a $50 million plan that also upgrades other non-revenue (oh, sorry, Olympic) sports facilities that are sorely lacking. A lagging economy, jealous campus academic leaders and statehouse lawmakers more interested in raising tuition than building funds makes Byrd expansion a tough sell.
Athletics can’t ask for university funding despite giving the school nearly $2 million annually for the general fund. Ticket holders, alumni and, most importantly, a sugar daddy offering $15 million for naming rights to the field will pay for the upgrades. That main benefactor also has to be an alumna because university leaders won’t permit Comcast Field at Byrd Stadium for some weird reason. At least, not yet.
Yow is also battling the university’s academic leaders desire to relocate nearby Shipley Field to the outskirts of campus to make room for another building. Maryland’s 20-year campus plan also wants to rip up Lot 1 parking for green space that serves as tailgate central. The football stadium is wondrously in the center of campus, but it’s being seriously crowded by other buildings.
Critics feel Byrd is outdated. The 55-year-old bowl is largely a bunch of metal planks with little modern amenities.
Well, here’s your choice. You can have a still useful stadium that is fortunately well located or it can move down the road where it has no connection to campus life. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to still play basketball at Cole’s location between Byrd and the student union than on Comcast’s far-flung edge of campus?
Byrd’s next expansion isn’t going to do anything for students and little for most fans aside the bottom rows when a lowered field will permit better sight lines. It’s largely for rich alumni who want luxury boxes next to Tyser Tower. That’s the same reason the Redskins moved from RFK and the Terps relocated to Comcast.
Maryland will still have a full house in a grand old venue in this next expansion, though. And that’s not a bad thing.
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
