Add Maryland State Senate President Bill Ferguson to the list of Maryland officials who are getting impatient with Orioles ownership for not signing a lease extension already:
“If you look at what the Ravens did, they moved quickly because they understood what a great opportunity it is to continue to be in Baltimore and thrive in Baltimore. I’m hopeful that the Orioles will do the same thing,” Ferguson said. “I have confidence in Craig Thompson, who’s the state’s negotiator for the stadium authority. The sooner we get the deal done, the better,” he said.
This is, frankly, great political grandstanding — it’s not us elected officials’ fault the Orioles lease isn’t done, it’s the team owners’ — but lousy political negotiating. As we’ve covered here before, declaring the most important thing to be getting a deal done and not getting a good deal done risks playing right into the hands of those who are trying to wrangle more money out of the public purse, especially when the sticking point appears to be that O’s owner John Angelos hasn’t yet submitted his wish list for total taxpayer subsidies.
Those subsidies will definitely be at least $600 million–plus, since that’s what the state legislature approved for each of the Orioles and Ravens last year. The Baltimore Banner, one of those new nonprofit news outlets that are supposed to be the future of journalism, has a rundown of what Angelos could use the $600 million for, but it pretty much comes down to hell if we know:
- The Ravens owners have submitted a list of about $450 million worth of immediate upgrades, including new ‘fan hospitality and retail areas,” upgraded luxury suites, moving the press box, upgrading video and sound systems, and “plenty of electrical, plumbing and ventilation upgrades.”
- Angelos, meanwhile, has remained fixated on building out a stadium district similar to the Atlanta Braves — never mind that there’s no room around the Orioles’ stadium to build a Braves-style mixed-use project. Angelos wants either development rights to that state land or another $300 million to help build it, depending on whose anonymous sources you choose to believe. Someone, presumably Orioles management, has been polling Marylanders about their familiarity with a proposed district called “Camden Crossing,” which is likely a push poll since there’s been no announcement of a project by that name.
The past of journalism, meanwhile, in the form of the desiccated remains of the Baltimore Sun, reports that Ferguson merely said it was “too early to say” if the state should put additional money into a ballpark district, adding that “it’s premature to talk about investments around the facility when we don’t have a partner that is committing to be there for the next 20 to 30 years” — which definitely telegraphs that if Angelos would commit to staying 20-30 years, then Ferguson would be willing to discuss it.
If you want to put the comments by Ferguson and other state officials into the best possible light, they’re trying to subtly tell Angelos to quit whining about his development dreams and just take the damn $600 million that’s on the table already. (The Banner has previously reported that he “isn’t going to get his wish for development on the parking lots, nor will he receive an extra $300 million that he’s asking for from the state,” again cited to an anonymous “source who has knowledge of the lease negotiations.”) But the best leverage the state, or any landlord, has in this situation is that while baseball teams need a place to play, the governments that own the stadiums don’t really need to have games played there. “We’re not sure why John Angelos seems to want the Orioles to play in the street next year, but that’s where he’s headed if he doesn’t settle for the $600 million in public money our dumb ex-governor already approved” might not pander to O’s fans as well, but it would be much better fiscal watchdogging.
UPDATE: Right after posting this I spotted this morning’s long New York Times interview giving a soapbox to Angelos to talk about his stadium plans, though the best he could do with it was “If we develop it right, and we include that impactful community program module, we can change the whole brand of Baltimore,” which does not really make him sound less like a money-grubbing AI in a human flesh suit. Also, if this is what the Times has in mind for its former sports department, please let them go back to writing game stories already.
At least when Cleavon Little did this in Blazing Saddles it was funny.
In what I’m sure is purely coincidental and completely unrelated, cbssports.com ran an article today with the headline “John Angelos hints Orioles won’t extend young stars without ‘dramatically’ raising prices at the ballpark.” Maybe Maryland could kick in some extra money so Angelos can sign Adley Rutschman to an extension without having to spend his own money.
I’m not sure what he has planned, but I recently learned that the Inner Harbor shopping area – which we thought was so cool in the 80s – has fully gone to seed. Largely for the reasons most malls have gone bust.
Perhaps redeveloping that area, which is near the park, is what he wants?
A developer has purchased Harborplace and is planning on redeveloping it.
With a murder rate hovering around 10 times the national average, crumbling schools, streets and sewer systems, obviously the way to fix Baltimore is to spend a billion dollars upgrading luxury suites.
I’m glad somebody understands capitalism. Money has rights. If you were money would you want to be spent on some seedy elementary school or an upmarket luxury lounge for well to do mallpark patrons?
Here,here.
Just returned from one of my infrequent (every 3-6 years) pilgrimages to see my Cardinals; besides irked by the team’s gouging on ticket prices since my last visit (although amazing equalizer is having the team suck so badly that the secondary market is a bonanza of good deals), the ‘new’ city block gifted to the team for secondary income generating has done a fabulous contribution to the hollowing out of the downtown core. Of course it’s not all to blame, but the creation of that Cardinal plaza has added to the boarded up street scape of a once beautiful downtown. It almost makes me think the Braves model is the preferred one – despite being so inaccessible for many.