It’s going to be a busy weekend for Terry Hasseltine.
The new head of the state’s Office of Sports Marketing was still packing up his old Kentucky home Thursday afternoon.
He expects to arrive in Maryland today, and when he starts Monday, his professional work will be cut out for him, too.
He will be responsible for promoting Maryland as a host for professional, athletic and recreational sports events.
Those events could include major attractions such as the Army-Navy Game, the NCAA lacrosse tournament and smaller events the city hasn’t hosted before.
“I think it’s actually an advantage I’m not from Maryland; I don’t have preconceived notions,” he said. “I don’t go in thinking, ‘Oh, this is what Camden Yards is.’ I can go in with open eyes.”
Hasseltine was chosen after a national search conducted by the Maryland Stadium Authority and Department of Business and Economic Development in conjunction with private-sector partners. Previously, he was deputy executive director for the Kentucky Sports Authority, and has worked at the Greater Louisville Sports Commission and the NCAA.
Hasseltine’s experience in developing sporting events outweighed his lack of a Maryland connection, said Hannah Byron, assistant secretary of DBED’s Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts.
Hasseltine was officially hired about a month ago and will work in partnership with DBED and the stadium authority.
“He’s got that experience that we were looking for in going after, very aggressively, events,” Byron said.
After evaluating local venues and meeting local stakeholders, Hasseltine said he hoped to begin work on a long-range plan in about six months.
One venue will be easy to evaluate: 1st Mariner Arena in downtown Baltimore will be torn down early into Hasseltine’s tenure and replaced with a more modern, 18,500-seat arena.
“I think there’s an advantage to it, [it] allows us to look at the other arenas as a whole, and not have this crutch that everything has to go to that one arena,” he said.
“We’ll take a closer look at University of Maryland facilities … at Towson facilities.”
