The Baltimore Business Journal ran a long article yesterday on Maryland’s plans to spend $600 million apiece on stadium renovations for the Orioles and Ravens, much of it devoted to the question of whether a $1.2 billion public expense is worth it, which you can probably guess what I have to say about that. (If you can’t guess, I’m quoted in the article: “There is a price point where it makes sense. It is not $1 billion.”) But there’s lots of other information dropped about the proposal, which still needs to be approved by the state legislature, so let’s skip to those:
- Stadium Authority chair Tom Kelso says that the Orioles’ Camden Yards would have seats removed — over and above the seats already being removed at taxpayer expense so Orioles pitchers stop giving up home runs like they’re going out of style — in order to “create some really unique viewing locations within the stadium, where people aren’t necessarily buying a ticket and sitting in a seat for nine innings.” Creating spaces where people can pay to watch the game and then not actually watch the game is all the rage in sports venues right now, because, uh, something about millennials, so this is unsurprising; it does raise the question, however, of whether expansive wine bars are really what will get baseball fans buying Orioles tickets in, say, the year 2040, or if the team will demand then that they be torn out at public expense and replaced by video arcades or something.
- Stadium Authority executive director Michael Frenz says the renovations would likely include some kind of “ballpark village” a la what the Cordish Companies (which are based in Baltimore) built for the St. Louis Cardinals alongside their stadium. As I noted to the article’s author, but it didn’t make it into the final piece, Camden Yards actually pioneered the “ballpark village” with its Orioles-controlled stores along Eutaw Street between the stadium and its neighboring warehouse, which was closed off to the public and handed over to the team; I didn’t mention the bit about Cordish’s past proclivity for racially coded dress codes, but the legislature may want to take that into consideration as well.
- “In exchange for public financing, the Ravens and Orioles will have to agree to extend their leases by the term of the bonds used to fund renovation projects and additions. A project with a 15-year bond maturity, for instance, will require a 15-year lease extension.” This, as I also told the Business Journal, is bonkers: There’s zero reason to tie the length of the teams’ lease extension to the length of the bond maturity, except for some weird fetishization about not wanting to be “still paying” for stadiums that aren’t in use. (As I’ve noted before, the length of stadium bonds is just a bookkeeping measure: Stadiums with zombie debt wouldn’t have been better deals if cities had paid for them with suitcases full of twenties.) The right way to be thinking about this is as how much state taxpayers would be shelling out for each year of guaranteeing that the teams won’t leave: If the Orioles and Ravens were to each agree to 15-year lease extensions for $600 million in renovations, that would come to $40 million a year, which would shatter the lease extension cost record of $24 million a year set by Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon in 2019.
- Kelso said that the $1.2 billion isn’t likely to be spent all at once, but would likely be used to create a pool of money (don’t call it a slush fund!) that the Ravens and Orioles owners could continually dip into without having to go back to the legislature for new approvals.
- Camden Yards, thanks to the ballpark building spree that it in part helped set off by showing team owners that they could not only use a new stadium to attract more fans (at least until the team’s pitchers started giving up home runs like they were going out of style) but get someone else to pay most of the bills for it, is now one of the ten oldest stadiums in MLB, and Frenz humbly predicts that “the other six” (?), including Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium, “will all be torn down within the near future.” This despite the fact that, as he notes, all those stadiums recently received a lot of money for renovations; if Camden Yards gets renovation money, though, he promises that “the stadium is going to be around a long time.” Because reasons!
This is a lot to absorb, let alone to point and laugh at, so let’s hope state legislators are putting on their critical analysis caps before their first hearing on the plan next Tuesday. They also may want to ask the stadium authority a couple of additional key questions, like what kind of return on investment the state should expect to see on its $1.2 billion, and why it’s necessary to spend public money to keep teams in town whose owners say they have no intention of moving them. I asked Gov. Larry Hogan’s press secretary these questions over a month ago, and he summarily ignored them, but maybe people with actual subpoena powers will be better able to shake loose some answers.
If there is a bright side to all this, neither team is demanding a totally new stadium, unlike 40 miles southwest on I-95
I mean, I guess? $600 million for renovations, which could conceivably be followed by more demands for more renovations (or a new stadium) 15 years later, doesn’t actually sound any less awful than $1 billion for a stadium with a 30-year lease.
Didn’t they used to spend $600 million to build a whole stadium like 10 years ago?
More like five: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truist_Park
It’s obviously a bad deal on both counts, but throwing $600 million at the Orioles is kinda hilarious, given the state they’re in (and have been in for years now).
The state should honestly tie in some anti-tanking clauses on their own with the O’s. Make the team reimburse the state $100-200k for every game they finish under .500, or something wild like that.
I agree, but for a slightly different reason. Why do the Orioles get the same amount of money for a stadium that seats have as many people?
I know the actual answer: Camden Yards has become a white elephant from a business perspective, due to the way its premium areas (or in some places, lack thereof) were designed. Ravens stadium needs fewer structural changes.
Let me be the Governor’s unofficial press secretary:
1) Stadium subsidies are about facilitating job creation, and creating an incentive for a high profile attraction to stay in the area. Those are (or at least, should be) two essential aspects of government. Creating more “revenue” is not a priority.
2) When people get married, they can’t expect the marriage to last if they neglect their spouse. Mr. Angelos absolutely will stay in Baltimore, unless the city and state make it economically untenable for him to do so, as San Diego and Oakland did with the Chargers and Raiders, respectively.
(My regrets on not meeting the Wednesday deadline on answering these specious questions.)
You know, when Gang of Four wrote “Why work for love if it shows no profit?/You’ll only earn emotional losses,” they were at least being tongue-in-cheek.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smssFJEyK0E?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]
It is not the state or the city’s job to make Mr. Angelos or Mr. Biscotti’s businesses viable. Just as it is not the city or state’s job to make any franchise restaurant, hardware store or fruit stand economically viable.
That is the responsibility of the business owner alone. In fact, it is one of the most fundamental obligations a business owner has to his employees and investors.
Oriole Park was built 100% by the taxpayer. Now the taxpayer is supposed to help pay for the removal, kind of the dismantling of the park too? Ultimately the park would just be a studio with no seats, just something for someone to watch as they stream, and gamble, etc.
Shouldnt that region spend more on schools
Ah, to dream the impossible dream…..
For the Orioles (averaging 15-16k a game in 2018/19… I’m leaving out 2019/20/21 for obvious reasons), $600m in welfare payments to re-up for the next 15 years would represent a subsidy of about $25 per fan per game. If you go with last year’s attendance, well, it’s closer to $50 per fan per game.
I’ve never bought a ticket to Camden Yards, perhaps someone who has done so can answer this:
Wouldn’t it be cheaper for the state of Maryland to just buy all the unsold tickets (it seems actual fans don’t want them)?
John, some cities have actually done that, to guarantee their teams don’t leave…..
Yep, I am aware… and it is often the cheaper option.
Others have been “required” to buy any unsold tickets as part of their contracts with the teams. Just madness…
To fully illustrate how incredibly stupid this is, just change the business doing the negotiating to a convenience or hardware store and leave the rest of the language the same.
Anybody who can work in a quote from THE GANG OF FOUR is “what we all want”. And I’m beginning to believe that pro sports are damaged goods. How can anybody support them when natural’s not in it?!
Keep up the great work.
Didn’t the GANG OF FOUR also show their allegiance to the players as well as strangely the umps/refs with ” I love a man in uniform”?
Strangely they don’t like the woman’s leagues nor female refs/umps.
So they also exhibit owner tendencies…Never mind
I shouldn’t have used strangely twice in such a short comment.
As they say….my bad
Wait…. are we talking about the punk band or the Maoist political faction? I am confused…
The political faction’s lyrics didn’t scan as well.
Monday in Brooklyn:
I think that you’re leaving us hanging. Is that another lyric? The colon is throwing me off or maybe this is a Russian attempt to throw us into turmoil…
I’m just trying to reenact the show, which started 70 minutes late.
Let’s try this again:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-iJsIasEE?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&start=236&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]
Who knew that the owner of this site was a punk rocker?
I think What’s My Line has a potential great guest.
https://demause.net/2015/01/26/the-mekons/
Ladies and gentlemen, your cultural references have gone so far over my head that I must now leave the internet and return to something I understand. I’m going to drink bourbon. Please not to disturb, thank you,