One of the central gambits of getting a stadium deal done is the Two-Minute Warning: Trying to rush an agreement to completion by asserting that there’s a deadline of some kind approaching, even if it’s an arbitrary one. So some eyebrows had to be raised yesterday when Maryland treasurer Dereck Davis, at a meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, declared that there’s been “too much foot-dragging” in lease renewal talks between the Baltimore Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority, and it’s time to “get this damn thing done”:
“If there’s something going on, we need to know,” Davis said. “There’s too much foot-dragging on this, and what I’ve learned in 30 years is the longer nothing’s been said, the longer it takes. I’m saying this for the explicit purpose so it gets out there, and folks have to start answering what’s taking so long.”
Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s less clear exactly who Davis is attempting to pressure. The treasurer has previously been, if not exactly a stadium subsidy opponent, at least willing to gripe around the edges of a deal, opposing giving state money to the O’s for moving their outfield wall out to reduce home runs (he was outvoted) and complaining when the stadium authority gave up its share of Paul McCartney ticket revenues to the Orioles owners for no good reason. And the state has already committed at least $600 million in state money toward stadium renovations — Davis voted for a similar allocation for the Ravens — so some of this could just be grandstanding along the lines of “Jeez, Angelos family, quit dawdling and agree to take our money already!” (The Associated Press reports that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who was sitting next to Davis at the time, “smiled during the treasurer’s comments but did not make any comments.”)
That’s an okay bit of public #shaming, but it’s also a slightly dangerous one: Once you’ve established that time is of the essence — the proximate cause is the Orioles’ lease at Camden Yards expiring at the end of the year, though realistically that’s more of a pressure on the team owners, since they need to have a place to play in 2024 — it’s going to be hard to say no to anything the owners demand, even if that’s, say, support for federal infrastructure spending on the area around the stadium, or even worse, a state-of-the-art lease clause that would allow them to come back for more state money a few years down the road. Clearly John Angelos and company want something that has kept them from signing on the dotted line; and clearly Davis (and possibly Moore) are getting impatient; but it’s less clear that saying “Let’s get a deal done already!” is the best way to get the best deal for the public.
Meanwhile, a quick reminder that the Orioles’ renovation subsidy deal is so bad that economists J.C. Bradbury and Andy Zimbalist both say it’s among the worst ever, and they hardly agree on anything. There is no potential happy ending here, only the merciful sweet release of throwing $600 million down a hole and proceeding directly into buyers’ remorse.
My guess? In their minds, they are afraid of Baltimore becoming the next Oakland.