SECU Stadium is an outdoor athletic

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

on the campus of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known ...

. It is the home of

Maryland Terrapins football The Maryland Terrapins football team represents the University of Maryland, College Park in the sport of American football. The Terrapins compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Big Ten Conference. The Terrapins jo ...

and men's lacrosse teams, which compete in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. The facility was formerly named Byrd Stadium after Harry "Curley" Byrd, a multi-sport athlete, football coach, and university president in the first half of the 20th century, and temporarily Maryland Stadium after objections to Byrd's naming due to his history of supporting segregation.

History

SECU Stadium opened on September 30, 1950, as Byrd Stadium after construction at a cost of $1 million, replacing the much smaller Old Byrd Stadium on the site currently used for the university's Fraternity Row east of Baltimore Avenue. For 26 seasons, Maryland Stadium consisted of a horseshoe-shaped bowl with capacity of 34,680. Byrd Stadium 1975

Permanent lights were installed in 1985. In 1991, the stadium added the five-story Tyser Tower on its south side, featuring luxury suites and an expanded press area. That same year, the university opened the Gossett Football Team House adjacent to the east endzone. In 1995, the stadium's capacity increased to 48,055 through the addition of a 12,000-seat upper deck on the north side of the stadium. In 2001, during the Terrapins' ACC championship run, bleachers were installed to add an additional 3,000 seats. In 2002, a full-color video scoreboard was added in the east endzone, and the Gossett Football Team House started an expansion project. Between 2007 and 2009, the stadium underwent a $50.8 million expansion, increasing overall capacity, adding skyboxes and lowering the field to improve spectators' sightlines. The project rebuilt Tyser Tower, adding 63 suites and mezzanine seating. The expansion increased the stadium capacity to 54,000. A second LED video board was installed on the west side of the stadium before the 2008 season. The university had also announced plans to extend the upper deck around the west endzone, adding another 8,000 seats, but the expansion project was completed without this construction. The university installed a new artificial playing surface field in 2012, replacing its natural grass field used since the stadium's opening. The upgrade included a new technology known as "CoolPlay" that reportedly keeps the field cooler (up to 15 °F cooler) than traditional turf fields with rubber infill. It was the first installation of its kind in the United States. In 2021, a larger videoboard was installed behind the west endzone. The screen was first used during a night game against

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

on October 1, 2021. SECU Stadium's attendance record is 58,973, set on November 1, 1975. The record was achieved with temporary seating for a game featuring the #14 Terps and #9 Penn State. The lone version of the Presidential Cup college football bowl game was held here in December 1950. The

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

Baltimore Stars The Philadelphia / Baltimore Stars were a professional American football team which played in the United States Football League (USFL) in the mid-1980s. Owned by real-estate magnate Myles Tanenbaum, they were the short-lived league's dominant ...

called the stadium home in 1985. SECU Stadium has also hosted the Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship ten times.

Field naming rights

On August 24, 2006, the University of Maryland announced that it had agreed to a $20 million deal with Chevy Chase Bank to name the field Chevy Chase Bank Field, leaving the Byrd Stadium name intact. The revenue from the deal was used to pay for renovations and upgrades to the stadium. After Chevy Chase Bank was acquired by

Capital One Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the li ...

in 2009, the field was renamed Capital One Field. The bank branding is not displayed on the outside of the stadium, but since 2006 the full name including the branded field has been used in the university's marketing materials for the stadium. On September 16, 2022, the university announced that the stadium would be renamed

SECU Secu is a commune in Dolj County, Oltenia, Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the we ...

Stadium as part of a 10-year deal between the credit union and the university. The deal is worth $11 million and includes $2.5 million that will go towards athletic facility improvements.

Stadium name change

The stadium's original namesake was Harry C. "Curley" Byrd, a former Maryland football player who later taught English and history and served as athletic director before rising to university president, serving from 1935 until 1954. During his tenure, the campus grew significantly, and Byrd is credited with transforming UMD from "an undistinguished agricultural college to something resembling a modern university." However, in 2015, the Maryland Student Government Association passed resolution in support of removing Byrd's name from the stadium because of his prominent support of segregation during his tenure. That same year, then-university president Wallace Loh appointed a task force to consider the issue. Loh issued a recommendation to the

University System of Maryland The University System of Maryland (USM) is a public higher education system in the United States, U.S. state of Maryland. The system is composed of the eleven campuses at College Park, Maryland, College Park, Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimor ...

to change the name, and the Board of Regents voted 12-5 in December 2015 to rename the facility as "Maryland Stadium." On September 16, 2022, the university announced that the stadium would be renamed

Stadium as part of a 10-year deal between the credit union and the university.

Gallery

File:Chevy Chase Field at Byrd Stadium 4-20-2008.jpg, Interior view, 2008 File:Byrd Stadium home side 2005.jpg, Lateral view, 2005 File:UMD Byrd luxury.JPG, View of Tyser Tower File:Tyser Tower.JPG, Tyser Tower contains 63 luxury suites (2010) File:Byrd Stadium interior 2.jpg, Goal grandstand

References

External links