Terps bank on sponsor at Byrd

The Maryland athletic department and Chevy Chase Bank have agreed to a deal for the naming rights to the field at Byrd Stadium, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday. The agreement will permit the department to proceed with expansion plans for the stadium.

The locally based bank will pay $20 million over 25 years as part of a deal expected to be announced today at an afternoon press conference. The first football game at the rechristened Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium will be Sept. 2 against William & Mary.

The agreement is the second high-profile naming rights deal the university has entered into in less than seven years. Telecommunications titan Comcast agreed to a $20 million deal in January 2000 for the Terrapins’ new basketball arena. Comcast Center played host to its first basketball game in November 2002.

Chevy Chase Bank already has advertising signage in Byrd Stadium and has been a regular sponsor of athletic department events in recent years. It is the first company to purchase the naming rights to a football field in the ACC.

The addition of a naming rights sponsor was critical to the expansion project. The University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents approved a $35 million loan in June, providing much — but not all — of the money needed to expand Byrd.

Although plans have not been finalized, the athletic department hopes to add between 50 and 60 luxury suites and 500 mezzanine seats, as well as renovate the press box. The expansion is expected to add between 2,000 and 3,000 seats.

The addition will provide the department a much-needed source of cash and also help pay back the loan to the state. Maryland, Wake Forest and Duke are the only schools in the ACC that do not have luxury suites in their stadiums.

Byrd’s current permanent capacity is 48,055, although the school has placed temporary bleachers on the stadium’s promenade since 2001 to increase official seating to 51,500. However, Maryland has topped 51,500 in attendance 14 times in the five seasons under Friedgen. Four of those games were last year, when the school set a per-game attendance record of 52,426.

Sources said the next step is to hire a designer, which is expected to happen by October. It is anticipated the construction will occur in phases, with part of the renovation complete in time for the 2009 season and the entire project done by the start of the 2010 season.

The department plans to extend Tyser Tower, which houses the press box and broadcast booths, on both sides to offset the field-length upper deck on the north side of the stadium. The upper deck added 12,000 seats and was constructed in time for the 1995 season, and it also was the last permanent seating addition to the facility.