Football facility to be renamed SECU Stadium

The University of Maryland’s football stadium will be renamed SECU Stadium as part of a 10-year deal announced Friday afternoon.

SECU, founded in 1951 as the State Employees Credit Union of Maryland and headquartered in Linthicum, will pay the athletic department a guaranteed $11 million that includes a $2.5 million gift to help programs and facilities on campus, including the construction of the Barry P. Gossett Basketball Perfomance Center. As part of the agreement, SECU will pay the department $135 for every new account associated with the university that could net the department an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 annually.

“It’s a significant deal,” Terps athletic director Damon Evans said. “When you take a look at trying to develop relationships and partnerships, you want to do those types of things with individuals you have some alignment with in values, and their values around community service in particular really align with what we do. We wanted to make sure that this deal brought value not only to athletics, but to the campus as well.”

It will be the stadium’s third name since opening in 1950 as “Byrd Stadium” at a cost of $1 million. In December 2015, the name of the stadium — honoring former school president Harry C. “Curley” Byrd, a one-time Terps football player who served as an English and history teacher and then athletic director before becoming university president in 1935 — was changed to Maryland Stadium after the 17-member University System of Maryland Board of Regents voted to remove the homage to Byrd, who had opposed racial integration.

SECU Stadium will debut on Oct. 1 when the football team hosts Michigan State in its Big Ten Conference home opener. The name will replace Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium after Capital One Bank and the school agreed to terminate their partnership.

“We had a deal with Capital One that had about nine or 10 years remaining on it and that was not driving any revenue for us,” Evans said. “We were not seeing any additional revenue. This allows us to drive more revenue to the bottom line of Maryland athletics and puts us in a position to help us to continue to grow and adapt in this ever-changing environment.”

SECU is known among local college basketball circles after entering an agreement in 2013 with Towson University to have its basketball facility called SECU Arena. That 10-year deal entailed $4.75 million over 10 years.

Dan Shell, a senior vice president at United Talent Agency, which helped broker the arrangement between Maryland and SECU, said the fit is right because credit unions find value in naming rights in college athletics as university faculty and staff often have existing relationships with them.

“I am a big believer that college naming rights should be bought locally because if you have the right partner, you can do more with the partnership if they’re local,” he said. “Beyond the revenue, they can provide other benefits to the university, and likewise, the university can provide opportunities to the brand to create tentacles to the deal that are valuable to the brand.”

Shell said that while at one time 70% of football stadiums at the NCAA Division I level did not bear corporate names, now only about 30% are unnamed.

“There are not that many Power Five stadiums that don’t have a name,” he said. “So I think it became more valuable in these last couple years, and I think they wanted to capture that value, but do it in a way that it was with the right brand.”

Evans said the athletic department began the process for finding a naming rights partner two years ago.

“We have to identify different sources of revenue in order to continue to be competitive within the Big Ten and in the ever-changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics,” he said. “A stadium is a significant asset, and it’s an asset that will drive a lot of revenue. As we looked at revenue streams, we saw an opportunity here, and we wanted to make sure that we took advantage of it. But we wanted to make sure we took advantage of it in the right way and not just a sponsorship, but a true partnership that was beneficial across many different platforms.”

The new arrangement will allow SECU to co-present financial wellness workshops for faculty and staff and help create a new financial literacy course for all students. In turn, the university’s athletic department will be engaged in SECU’s Kindness Campaign, a project intended to inspire others to carry out acts of service in their communities.

As part of the school’s Good Neighbor Day initiative, the two entities will also partner with the city of College Park, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s Parks & Recreation, and the school’s Office of Community Engagement and Department of Transportation to get involved in a Fill-a-Bus Donation Program at the Oct. 8 home game against Purdue. Fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to SECU Stadium to assist the Campus Pantry and the College Park Community Food Bank.

Shell said there were five finalists, but SECU’s offer was not the most lucrative. Evans said it came down to matching the department’s values with SECU’s.

“The things that this company does with the community, its local roots, the alignment in values and the things that will be brought to our campus, that just stood out,” he said. “So when you look at the total package and when you consider everything, that’s why SECU was the best fit for Maryland athletics.”

SECU signage will be placed outside the stadium and inside the venue on the scoreboards and field. Automated teller machines will also be installed in the stadium.

Evans said the deal does not infringe on M&T Bank’s branch or ATMs on campus.

Evans said the agreement includes a provision for both parties to review the arrangement’s benefits after the five-year mark. But he said both sides are excited about the deal.

“There’s always going to be options based on the relationship and how we move forward,” he said. “Obviously, we’re both excited about where we are today, and I’m optimistic we will move forward in a way that will give us a long-standing relationship for many years to come.”