During Tuesday’s Maryland Stadium Authority monthly board meeting, staffers discussed school construction projects. They chatted about an internal audit. They approved a $175,000 contract for on-call painting services at the Camden Yards complex.
Board members did not, however, talk at length about the news that’s dominated the minds of Baltimore sports fans for a week: The Orioles, the stadium authority’s tenants, are being sold.
That’s because, despite the huge change for the ballclub — which will have new owners for the first time in three decades, the bulk of the stadium authority’s existence — the Orioles’ standing with the authority remains unchanged. As agreed to in December, the team has a lease committing it to Baltimore for at least 15 years and perhaps more than 30. That remains in place, regardless of the owner.
The Angelos family, as reported last week, agreed to sell its controlling stake in the team to a group led by Baltimore native David Rubenstein, the billionaire founder of the Carlyle Group. The transaction is awaiting approval from MLB’s owners.
“There’s been some news recently, regarding the Orioles, and wanted to send a congratulations to the new ownership group who are investing in the Orioles,” stadium authority board Chair Craig Thompson said, closing Tuesday’s hour-long meeting.
Aside from that, it was business as usual for the authority. More than the switch in Orioles’ ownership, staff and board members discussed HVAC repairs at Camden Yards and furniture additions to M&T Bank Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Ravens.
The change means that it will soon be Rubenstein, not Angelos, who makes decisions on behalf of the Orioles.
Angelos and the state previously expressed mutual interest in the Orioles developing state-owned land around Camden Yards — including the historic B&O Warehouse — envisioning a year-round entertainment district. It will now be Rubenstein and his ownership group that decides how they wish to approach that development. The Orioles, regardless of owner, have the exclusive rights to reach a land deal with the state by December 2027.
Thompson has not yet spoken to Rubenstein and it’s unknown if Rubenstein would be interested in developing the area. But in a statement last week on the sale, Rubenstein noted that the “impact of the Orioles extends far beyond the baseball diamond.”
“The opportunity for the team to catalyze development around Camden Yards and in downtown Baltimore will provide generations of fans with lifelong memories and create additional economic opportunities for our community,” Rubenstein stated.
Through a spokesperson, Rubenstein declined to comment further until MLB’s owners approve the deal, which valued the club and its assets at $1.725 billion.
Though it’s not clear if Rubenstein would seek a land deal, experts say doing so would simply make sense — and dollars — for any astute, money-making owner.
“I don’t see why Rubenstein wouldn’t be interested in the development rights,” said Michael Friedman, a University of Maryland kinesiology lecturer who wrote the 2023 book, “Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption.”
A “mallpark” is a portmanteau of a shopping mall, theme park and ballpark. Friedman considers Camden Yards to be the first of its kind — a stadium that is more than simply a vehicle to watch a ballgame. While the concept was formed decades ago, it’s grown into a new beast in recent years, with many stadiums now boasting surrounding entertainment districts.
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s first trip out of the state after taking office last year was to accompany John Angelos to the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark, which has an accompanying development, The Battery, that is the envy of many MLB teams. Paid for with public and private dollars, it’s a popular entertainment destination that generates profits for the club. In Portland, Oregon, the latest efforts to attract an MLB team have included seeking 164 acres of land to create “the largest sports and entertainment district” in MLB history, according to a statement from the Portland Diamond Project.
The Atlanta development and hypothetical Portland one are miles outside their city centers, a key distinction from Baltimore’s urban ballpark. But it’s become common for sporting venues — in downtowns or elsewhere — to be surrounded by bars, restaurants and even hotels and apartments. Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. has developed similar districts in Philadelphia and St. Louis, as well as in Arlington, Texas, outside Dallas.
Generally speaking, Friedman said, public stadium and accompanying district deals often allow teams to receive benefits — like potentially large profits — while leaving the risk with a public body.
“It’s, ‘Heads, I win; Tails, you lose,’” Friedman said.
Martin J. Greenberg, a Milwaukee-based attorney who wrote the 2000 book, “The Stadium Game,” has dubbed sports facilities that double as an entertainment destination a “sports.comm” — combining “sports” with “community.” Entertainment districts can be quite lucrative, especially because, unlike other revenues that must be shared with other MLB teams, each club can keep all of the money it generates.
Teams must share 48% of particular local revenues, which include ballpark naming rights deals. That’s an avenue that Angelos has explored, according to a Wall Street Journal article Tuesday that said he recently had an agreement to swap the word “Oriole” for a sponsor’s name in “Oriole Park at Camden Yards.” A spokesperson for Angelos did not reply to a request for comment.
But if the Orioles and state agree to a land deal — which would increase the team’s commitment to Baltimore to 30 years — the potential revenue generated by that public land would be kept by the Orioles, rather than shared with rival teams.
“This is a revenue stream that has tremendous value,” Greenberg said.
The Orioles and the state appeared in September to have agreed to a lease-plus-land-development deal in a nonbinding memorandum of understanding, an arrangement many observers considered advantageous for the ballclub. But those terms didn’t make their way into December’s signed lease.
That means it remains to be seen what kind of development agreement the Orioles and state could come to. There’s not necessarily a rush, either, as the parties have nearly four years to come to a consensus.
The stadium authority was asked late last month during a Senate subcommittee hearing about that proposed ground lease. Authority Executive Director Michael Frenz responded that it would be “premature” to discuss because there’s no arrangement in place.
Another consideration if the Orioles do enter into a ground lease would be how the Ravens — who are entitled to receive equal benefits as the Orioles, as outlined in the teams’ leases — would be compensated.
“If the Orioles proceed to exercise their right to development in compliance with all benchmarks and required approvals, then we believe the Ravens would have the right to request an amendment to their lease to obtain a comparable benefit,” Frenz said in Annapolis.
It could be awhile before the state and the Orioles come to a deal to develop the ballpark area. This week, MLB owners meeting in Florida will discuss Rubenstein’s purchase of the Orioles. If he becomes the MLB’s “control person” for the team, there will be a laundry list of essential tasks — not the least of which, in the eyes of fans, is agreeing to a contract extension with one or more of the team’s young stars.
But he’ll also have the ability to develop land around the ballpark, a potentially profitable option.
