AD Jim Smith reveals strategies for Maryland Athletics to increase revenue

Ahmed Ghafir
Oct 15, 2025
2 min read

Jim Smith arrived as Maryland Athletics’ new full-time athletic director on July 15 with a clear vision in mind to build and grow the fan experience and revenues as the university looks to remain competitive in the modern era of college athletics. Shortly before Smith arrived in College Park, details of his contract became public with a $1.2 million bonus revealed if the athletic department’s annual revenue increases by $50 million in 2029-30, compared to 2024-25.

Smith has made clear that building upon the gameday atmosphere to keep fans engaged is a big part of those efforts with a clear emphasis on getting fans to SECU Stadium through the fall, including various gameday themes like Oktoberfest for the Nebraska game along with the launch of Terpsville Fan Fest for fans to enjoy pregame activities inside Jones-Hill House. “I think part of when I went through the interview process was about making sure our arenas and stadiums are full,” Smith said in an interview released on Wednesday.

But how else is Maryland working to achieve that $50 million goal?

“I think the Atlanta Braves did an outstanding job in continuously innovating in a stadium that’s only seven years old, in finding new product categories that you can create that have a fairly quick return on investment,” Smith added. “So I think we can do some of those things at both SECU Stadium and the Xfinity Center. I think there’s a great opportunity for us to get into the special event business and kind of the non-traditional collegiate athletics business. That’s the beauty of building the Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center, that we now can have our basketball teams practicing in their own facility so we can use the arena for other special events and be able to generate another revenue stream from that. Having done the Savannah Bananas for the Atlanta Braves and having put that deal together, being able to try to recruit an event like that to SECU Stadium during the summer. Those are the types of opportunities that I really think exist. Are we going to get to them all in year one? No. But we’re going to get to them over a period of time. If that can add up to that number, then fantastic. And if we don’t get to that number but it continues to grow over a period of time, that’s just great for Maryland Athletics long-term.”

Smith also noted Maryland will receive the full share of its Big Ten payout “in two years” as Maryland looks to remain competitive among its Big Ten peers, but NIL is also what keeps him up at night.

“The fear that NIL becomes an arms race in that the number perpetually goes up and that there’s no fiscal responsibility for it. I think that keeps me up at night. I’d like to say we want to spend smart money. Everybody talks about moneyball, but we’ve got to be really smart about how we’re going to allocate so we can be competitive from an NIL standpoint and from a [revenue] share standpoint.”

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