U.S. Lacrosse, the national governing body for the fastest growing sport in the country, intends to abandon its location of nine years across from Homewood field for a prospective $25 million office and athletic complex at the new Harbor Point in downtown Baltimore.
The move is contingent on receiving sufficient state funding.
The prospective new headquarters will be built on the waterfront near Fells Point on the once-contaminated site of a former chromium plant. The move would enable U.S. Lacrosse to expand its space by approximately 30,000 square feet while helping to give the growing sport the attention that the organization feels it deserves.
The new headquarters would enable the organization to expand its current staff of 44 employees, have a 3,000-seat arena for training national teams and showing exhibition matches and improve the Lacrosse Museum and National Hall of Fame, which are now housed in cramped quarters adjacent to Homewood Field.
"As a sports national governing body, we need some significant space and expansion," said U.S. Lacrosse Executive Director Steve Stenerson.
The move would be likely to happen within a few years; Harbor Point director Lawrence White recently told the Baltimore Sun that the firm plans to begin construction in May and complete the project by spring 2009.
Jerry Schnydman, executive assistant to Hopkins President William Brody, does not believe that the move will impact
Hopkins in any way, saying that having U.S. Lacrosse here attracts any real publicity to the school or the program.
"Anyone who wants to come and play lacrosse and study does not come because of the proximity to U.S. Lacrosse headquarters. They might visit it ... if the coaches suggested it, but it's not a [criterion] that a 17- or 18-year-old would tend to look at," Schnydman said.
Schnydman was careful to note that the University does not either encourage nor discourage U.S. Lacrosse's possible move, but that Hopkins wants whatever U.S. Lacrosse sees as the best option.
"If National Lacrosse stayed, that would be fine ... it's not a matter of being indifferent, but a matter of what's better for U.S. Lacrosse. They need more space, which we just don't have," Schnydman said.
According to Stenerson, U.S. Lacrosse tried to work with Johns Hopkins to find a space solution, and simply realized that it was "impossible to come up with one."
The biggest factor as to the move is where funding will come from; officials recently said that the move will not be able to happen without almost $8 million in grants from the state and subsidies from the city. U.S. Lacrosse, a non-profit organization, is currently asking the state for two $3.5 million grants. They hope that one will be granted this fiscal year, with the second being transferred in 2009.
City officials have publicly recognized the fact that lacrosse is an important part of Baltimore's heritage and culture, as well as a source of income to the city. Acording to the Baltimore Sun, the last time Baltimore hosted the NCAA Division I lacrosse championship, in 2004, it brought in nearly $15 million, with 40,000 visitors in Baltimore for the event. Now that the championships are returning this spring, the city expects a similar benefit.
A number of city officials have been urging state legislature to find the money in their budget to helping Baltimore become the "lacrosse capital of the world."
Stenerson said that he is "hopeful that the state will be exposed to the fact that lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the country, [and that U.S. Lacrosse] wants to try to stay in Maryland." There is a great possibility that the headquarters will have to resort to moving out of state if sufficient funding cannot be found within the state government.
The Baltimore Sun reported on Feb. 23 that Baltimore Development Corp. President M.J. Brodie sent a letter to Governor Martin O'Malley stating that "without [support]... there is a real chance the National Lacrosse Center will move outside of Maryland. We must not let this happen!"
Stenerson said in an interview with the News-Letter that the "state's support is very important to [U.S. Lacrosse] ", but that it may be necessary to "generate the vast majority of funds privately."
