Maryland Sports Commission executive director Terry Hasseltine recently chatted with PressBox about events coming to the state in the coming months, including the BMW Championship (Aug. 12-17), Maryland Cycling Classic (Sept. 6), Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill (Oct. 16-19), Naismith Hall of Fame Series (Nov. 3) and CIAA Men’s & Women’s Basketball Tournament (February 2026)
This has been edited for content and clarity.
PressBox: What does it mean to get the Maryland Cycling Classic going again?
Terry Hasseltine: We’re really excited. Taking the one-year hiatus because of the Olympic calendar and then also the collapse of the Key Bridge set us back a little bit, but I think we had everything aligned to create a really robust weekend of activities. This year we have a women’s race included. We’ll have two separate races, [with the women] going off at 8:30 a.m. and the other one probably around [12:30 p.m.] depending on how everything pans out in the competition. We also this year will be doing an 18-mile circuit in the city limits only. … The women do it [four] times and the men do it [six] times.
PB: How excited are you to be able to introduce a women’s race?
TH: I am over-the-moon excited about it. It’s something that we wanted to do from the onset of creating the Maryland Cycling Classic. However, the international calendar didn’t align with adding it early on. And then also coming off COVID, we had to get out of the gate strong. The calendar at that time aligned with the men’s race, but we always knew that the women’s race was going to become part of our weekend portfolio. With it happening in 2025, we couldn’t be more excited.
PB: How has the Maryland 5 Star grown since the inaugural event in 2021?
TH: It’s becoming a staple in Cecil County. It’s becoming a staple in the state of Maryland. It’s one of seven [5 Star competitions] in the world and one of two in North America. It brings in riders from all over the globe. We’re excited because we’ve now transitioned from operational stuff the first couple of years — making sure we understood the logistics and how the grounds could lay out — to now being able to market, promote, build and grow the audience. Every year we’ve seen attendance grow at about 11 percent annually. We’re hoping now between Year 5 and Year 7 that we can make a bigger jump in attendance now that we know the lay of the land and how the property works.
PB: What has surprised you about the Maryland 5 Star since it began?
TH: The fact that we were able to become as impactful on the 5 Star series from the get-go and it didn’t take us five years to get there. We made an immediate impact to being one of the best right out of the gate, which is not easy to do in any event but because of the leadership of Jeff Newman and Mike Hankin in our advisory committee, we were able to make the right strides right out of the gate to really present a world-class venue and portfolio and also secure some of the best riders in the world. Therefore, we were able to compete with the other six 5 Stars right from the get-go. It really impressed me. It also impressed those in the equine industry who saw that we were serious about putting this on.
PB: What is the reaction from the equestrian community to this event?
TH: Those who have come who are equine enthusiasts absolutely love the event. We’re seeing more people starting to attend from the equine community outside of Maryland, which is outstanding because that means that new people come to Maryland. But also, it’s creating a buzz in non-equestrian folks as the place to be in October. You want to be out at Fair Hill because it’s just like going to Preakness or the Derby where you’ve got to be seen, creating the FOMO effect. We’re excited to see that that’s starting to build up, especially in October when things are very competitive in the sports landscape. You have NFL and college football. You have the fall sports season going on. You have the Baltimore Running Festival in October as well. You just have so much activity sandwiched into the fall season. For an event like the 5 Star to really start making an impact in creating that FOMO is a really great sign that the future is bright.
PB: What did you learn from the first BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in 2021?
TH: We learned how to move people around better in and out of the facility as well as capturing where these people are coming from. We have a better system in place to make sure we’re identifying that so we can definitely identify the economic value to the greater Baltimore region. … But really it came down to how do people move around the course? How do we get people to the course? I think that was the big lesson learned. You bring that many people on to the grounds, how do you get them there? How do you disperse them? How do you make sure that everyone has a smooth experience?
PB: How cool is it going to be to have four local men’s basketball teams — Coppin State, Loyola, Maryland and Towson — playing in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series at CFG Bank Arena?
TH: I think it’s really cool. You’ll see Buzz Williams in his first game as head coach [at Maryland], a chance to see how schools like Towson and Loyola as well as Coppin are preparing for the upcoming season. It allows local fan bases [and] some alumni groups to gather early in the season to help us kick off the entirety of the college basketball season. I think that’s super cool.
PB: What has been the impact of the CIAA Men’s & Women’s Basketball Tournament since it came to Baltimore in 2022?
TH: It absolutely hits a need period for the city of Baltimore in bringing people in. The ancillary events as well as the basketball have continued to grow and build audiences each and every year. The energy and expectation not only for Baltimore but for the people in the CIAA alike has elevated [this] to be a must-see event. It’s just really wonderful seeing the elevation, the growth strategy that comes year after year. The enthusiasm from the institutions as well as the spectators who really love coming to Baltimore that time of year to watch really great basketball and also participate in the ancillary events … and having this cachet event that really just brings more people to the front door of all these businesses is just really cool.
Photo Credit: Shannon Brinkman Photography
Originally published June 18, 2025
