After years of ad hoc attempts to land non-major league sporting events, Maryland opens a new marketing office to bring more sports, and money, to the state.

By Michael Anft

"Twenty-six states have put together statewide efforts to tap the sports travel market. I think Maryland realized it needs a point guard to compete."  -- Terry Hasseltine

On the weekend of Oct. 12-13, Baltimore played host to the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, a PGA Champions Tour event that drew thousands of people. If one were to walk through the far-flung parking lots around Baltimore Country Club in Timonium, where the championship was played, he'd see license plates from Georgia, New Hampshire, Ohio, even one from Alberta, Canada. Those foreign plates say good things for Baltimore's reputation as a travel destination, but they represent something far more tangible.

When people travel to sporting events, they have to stay somewhere, eat, and perhaps see a sight or two that has nothing to do with watching old guys chase balls across manicured expanses of green. When they do, they pump money into the economy, as well as into state coffers via amusement, hotel and sales taxes. Coupled with the Baltimore Marathon, with its epicenter at the other end of I-83 downtown, it was a good weekend for those who want to see Baltimore, and even the entire state, become a money-sucking sports mecca.

In the past couple of months, the state government has taken concrete steps to make weekends like that one a regular part of the calendar. After years of relying on ad hoc, mostly volunteer-run attempts to persuade organizers of youth league tournaments, neutral-site college football games, Senior Olympics, and other events to come here, Maryland says it's fully prepared to get off the sidelines of the $186-billion-a-year sports travel industry and into the game.

Terry Hasseltine, director of the new Maryland Office of Sports Marketing, prefers another shopworn sports metaphor: "Twenty-six states have put together statewide efforts to tap the sports travel market. I think Maryland realized it needs a point guard to compete."

Hasseltine, who arrived in Maryland in August after serving three years as the deputy executive director of the Kentucky Sports Authority, is doing the dribbling. Besides becoming the face of Maryland's new promotions push, he represents the growth of government interest in coordinated efforts to grab a share of the sports travel dollar around the country. Prior to his state-level experience in Kentucky, Hasseltine worked with the Greater Louisville Sports Commission, one of hundreds of state and local offices set up to draw tourists in with athletics. In 1997, around 60 cities had their own sports commissions. Now, around 400 of them vie for a share of the sports market.

"It's just gone crazy," says Tim Schneider, publisher of SportsTravel magazine, which chronicles doings in the sports event planning business. "Sports and sporting events are the No. 2 reason why people make round trips of 100 miles or more -- right behind shopping."

Hasseltine says there's no reason why Maryland can't cash in on the craziness. With a varied geography that caters to a variety of sports -- fast-moving streams for whitewater rafting, the Chesapeake Bay for sailing, the ocean for deep-sea fishing, to give some aquatic examples -- and dozens of ballparks and college facilities, the state is outfitted for a regular saturation of athletics. "We could do Kentucky three times over here," he says. "The facilities, the people, the interest -- it's all here."

While in Kentucky, Hasseltine helped bring in the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament, as well as the National Senior Games -- and the economic impact of $36 million that came with them -- in 2007. Those big-ticket events are important, just as the Navy-Notre Dame football game to be played Nov. 15 at M&T Bank Stadium is, he says.

But perhaps more intriguing are hundreds of lesser-known events, some of which -- like the Dew Tour extreme games tournament that drew 50,000 to Camden Yards during a weekend earlier this year -- have little to do with major sports or major leagues. More than 100 different sports put on championships and other types of tournaments each year. They frequently take them on the road to places that court them. Many of them are run by youth leagues, where the players are under the age of 18.

"The youth market and the senior market are the ones we'll really emphasize," says Hasseltine. "The seniors are growing by leaps and bounds -- basketball, soccer, track and field -- as the Baby Boomers age. We'll look at the Senior Olympics. We can show them that our facilities and base of available officials are strong."

Events that feature youngsters especially have the eye of state development and tourism officials. Because the players are so young, they are often accompanied on trips by parents, siblings and grandparents, which means a lot of cash for hotels and restaurants in the areas surrounding a tournament or game.

"The youth market has shown signs of doing nothing but growing," says Hannah Byron, assistant secretary for tourism, film and the arts for the state Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED); she also played a major role in the hiring of Hasseltine.

"Just in lacrosse, soccer, and baseball there are a phenomenal number of players, and their families travel with them. You look at UMBC, for example. They hold a four-day high school-age lacrosse camp every summer. Kids come from all over the country and from Canada to be there. Their families come, stay in Baltimore County hotels, go to Fells Point for dinner. It adds up."

The decision to open a marketing office might lead the state to form its own, full-fledged sports commission, and has its roots in a transition report prepared for then-incoming Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2006. But the seed may have been planted two years earlier. Leaders at DBED, the Maryland Stadium Authority and O'Malley, then mayor of Baltimore, had campaigned for Baltimore's role during the bid to bring the 2012 Olympics to the Baltimore/Washington region. Their inability to rely on one entity to pull that bid together troubled them.

"We felt we were pinched because all of these other cities had sports commissions," recalls Clarence Bishop, deputy secretary at DBED. "We all had to pull double duty to do work on getting the Olympics, as well as getting regular events in place."

Although the Stadium Authority has proven to be an effective builder of athletic facilities, and the Camden Yards Sports and Entertainment Commission regularly lines up sporting events for the downtown stadiums, the state suffered from an acute lack of organization and coordination statewide. That prevented it from making strong bids on events outside of downtown, Bishop adds.

After the 2006 transition report and the hiring of Frederick Puddester, the former state budget director, as Stadium Authority chairman a year later, groundwork for a commission was laid.

"We saw that there was a lot of business out there and that we just weren't getting it," says Puddester. "We got together with DBED and said we have to tie all this to tourism." Puddester told O'Malley that the Stadium Authority would kick in $150,000 for three years to finance a marketing position. Once a search committee found someone to fill the slot, he added, that person would be charged with putting together a study on the state's facilities, drawing potential, and the prospect of forming a commission that would be sustained by private dollars. (Hasseltine is at work on one now.)

The question for industry observers now is whether Maryland has already missed the boat. The state's legacy as something less than a sports event-friendly place might not do it any favors, some say.

"We don't quite know how to play the game," says Bob Leffler, formerly the marketing director of the Baltimore Colts and now the president of the Leffler Agency, a sports marketing firm that does work for the Maryland Jockey Club, the Naval Academy and the Orioles, among others. "It might be like the slots issue. We're too late on that. We wait for other people to do things so we can see if they're successful before we move on them."

Key to Hasseltine's efforts will be backing from corporate sponsors and the state legislature, Leffler believes. In order to guarantee money to colleges that might want to play football at Camden Yards, or other large events, such as golf or tennis, the state needs lots of cash at the ready to lure them.

"They need money to make this work," Leffler says. "The problem in the past is that we haven't had the will to put this together in the right way. There's a tendency in Maryland to not want to pay for things. You have to pass the hat [among private interests] for the Preakness. It's crazy."

Although the hiring of Hasseltine marks a new era, it will be a short one if public and private interests can't raise money, he adds. "If Maryland doesn't come to the table with a better offer than the other states, then it just won't happen. I don't care how many crab cakes you hand out," Leffler says.

Hasseltine acknowledges the need for cash, but cites the economy as a hindrance to asking the General Assembly for solid support.

"This might not be the best year to ask for greenbacks," he says. "But it might be a great year for getting business and community people on board."

He also believes that, in the long run, the state legislature might be persuaded to part with some of the $70 million or so it raises each year through the amusement tax -- especially if more sporting events statewide hike up the state's annual take.

"Could we take some of that pot of money and put it toward bidding on events which make that return even higher? That's one of the arguments we could make, along with ones about improving the quality of life here and adding visibility for Maryland companies who sponsor events," Hasseltine says.

Although state officials speak of the potential financial benefits to businesses and taxpayers, some critics wonder whether the $150,000 the state is putting toward the sports marketing office is worth it.

"It seems to me that if you want to make a place attractive, then you go ahead and do that. You don't need to spend money marketing something that people really want," says Stephen Walters, an expert in sports economics and a professor at Loyola College in Maryland; he is also a persistent advocate for lower taxes and less government spending. "If we have to pay people to sing the state's praises, maybe we should look at the fundamentals."

But others who work in different shops on Hasseltine's side of the street, so to speak, say that Maryland won't know the value his office adds to the mix until he is given a chance to do his job.

"The problem in the past has been that they've never had a coordinated crew to deal with these events," says John Moag, the chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority from 1995 - '99 and now head of Moag and Company, a sports investment bank. "It's always been haphazard because we've lacked the staffing infrastructure even though the physical infrastructure we have is incredible. Now that Gov. O'Malley is behind this, I think we'll get there."

Schneider, the magazine publisher, agrees.

"The fact that Maryland was involved in the 2012 Olympics effort shows that they've gotten on to the radar screen," Schneider says. "If a destination comes out and says, 'We can handle the largest sporting event in the world,' then it really announces their viability. But a lot of it comes down to how well you market your state. Like a lot of businesses, the sports industry is relationships-centered. With statewide efforts in particular, it's important to have one person who can create and maintain those relationships, and Terry's a great person to have for that."

For his part, Hasseltine sees no cause for pessimism. Maryland has the pro facilities, the college complexes, the natural endowments, and a large base of fans. There's no reason why Maryland can't fill its calendar with sports year-round.

"When I looked to take this job, I saw how the Stadium Authority, backed by Baltimore and the state, brought the NFL back here and how it built two stadiums," he says. "Then, I saw all these excellent college facilities and wondered why there was never any Maryland representation at national events built around sports planning."

Now, Maryland has that guy.

Issue 3.43: October 23, 2008