In a sign of the good times for professional athletes in America, the skyboxes at Ravens stadium will be populated not just by corporate bigwigs and government VIPs but by friends and families of players like Eric Green, Cal Ripken and a handful of others looking for recreation or a haven.
Six Ravens players are considering or have leased suites at the stadium, either by themselves or in combination with others: Green, Ray Lewis, Rod Woodson, Tony Siragusa, Stevon Moore and Michael Jackson. The suites would be used by the players' families and friends during games.
"I just wanted to do it because I'm in the middle stages of my career and I wanted my friends and family to be able to enjoy these moments," said Green, a tight end with the Ravens since 1996. "I wanted my mother and grandmother to see me in grand style."
The new stadium has 108 suites. Of those, six are still available, four are being held out for day-by-day rental, and a few are reserved for the owner and visiting teams.
As at Oriole Park, three are reserved for the free use of the governor, mayor of Baltimore and the Maryland Stadium Authority.
Others are leased by the corporate heavyweights one would expect, such as Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust, Bell Atlantic, T. Rowe Price and MBNA.
It's a costly purchase. The suites range from $55,000 to $200,000 a year depending on size and location. Food and drink have to be purchased from the stadium concessionaire, at steep prices: crab cakes to serve 24 cost $150 and a six-pack of Budweiser is $17, not including tax or the 18 percent service charge.
The expense has prompted some, including players, to go in on a single box together.
"We're excited to have them up there," said David B. Cope, Ravens vice president for sales and marketing.
Cope, who has labored for the past two years to lease the suites, said he was surprised to find a ready market among the players. They already get a few complimentary tickets to home games for use by family and friends, but a suite offers comfort and security and can be used after the game or for business, he said.
"It's a natural progression with the salaries that they are getting," Cope said.
Baseball players average $1.1 million a year. Football players, who didn't achieve meaningful free agency until 1993, aren't far behind, at $767,000. Many individual athletes get much more. Ripken earns $6 million a year, Rod Woodson $3.5 million, and Green $1.2 million.
"I think more and more players will buy them. I think some of these good, young rich players should have it put in their contracts," Green said.
The teams resist the idea of giving boxes away. None of the players gets a discount, although the team is looking at ways to accommodate the possibility that a player will be traded. Suite leases require multi-year commitments.
"I think Cal wants to show support for the new football team," said Ira Rainess, an attorney who handles much of the Orioles player's commercial endorsements.
Rainess said he also will use the suite to attract business for Ripken. The third baseman leases a box at Oriole Park, too, for the use of his family and friends.
Orioles spokesman John Maroon said Ripken is the only player to have a box at Oriole Park, but Roberto Alomar has expressed interest if he signs a new Orioles contract.
Rainess said Ripken's lifelong base in the community, his long-term contract and plans to stay in Baltimore after retirement all played a role in his decision to get a suite. "We're in kind of a
unique situation," he said.
Retired Colt Stan White, a local attorney and broadcaster, has a Ravens suite in combination with associates. Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda shares a box with 29 other renters.
A spot check of various teams shows players growing as a market for suite-leasing. Cleveland's Jacobs Field has a box rented by Jim Thome. At the Ballpark in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers, three of the 126 boxes are leased by current players: Will Clark, John Wetteland and Ivan Rodriguez.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman has a box there, too.
"It has been a good market for us. It's one of the aspects of the game we can offer to them for the use of their family and friends," said Melinda Bantz, Rangers coordinator of corporate hospitality.
Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne said quarterback Bernie Kosar used to rent a box at Cleveland Stadium when the franchise was based there. Other players from time to time also rented suites, he said.
Joe Geier, an Ellicott City-based financial adviser with the accounting firm of Geier, Mules & Associates, whose clients include a number of professional athletes, said he is seeing more of them expressing an interest in suites.
"I'm sure the trend will continue as more stadiums go up," Geier said. "You would never have seen it in the past. But with the salaries today, guys can afford it."
Some players have businesses that allow them to take off suite expenses on taxes. Ripken's suite, for example, is leased to his corporation. And the Ravens' Jackson has a recording company in town.
Nevertheless, Geier said he recommends against such lavish spending for his clients. Better to invest for the post-playing years, he said.
A few of his clients, worried about the privacy of their wives seated in the complimentary seats provided by teams, have instead opted to buy season tickets elsewhere in the stadium, he said.
The Ravens' lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority requires not only boxes for the mayor, governor and stadium authority, but also that the food be sold at cost inside the box.
The notion of government leaders who supported the $223 million, publicly financed stadium munching chilled shrimp in a fancy suite has raised criticism, but they insist there is a public payoff.
"It's a great tool for the governor to use for business retention, business attraction purposes," said Ray Feldman, spokesman for Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
Suite holders
Many renters have displayed placards outside their suites at the Ravens' new stadium, some identifying shared space:
ANC Sports/Dap Inc.
Acme Paper & Supply/Foundation Group/Holabird Greenspring/Martin's Caterers
Action Business Systems Inc.
Anheuser-Busch Inc./The Winner Distributing Co.
Arthur Andersen LLP
Atlantic Automotive/Manheim Auto Auction
BGE
Baltimore Development Group
Baltimore mayor
Baltimore Sun
Bell Atlantic
Bell Atlantic Mobile
Bond Distributing/Coors Brewing Co.
Bond Distributing/Miller Brewing Co.
Bristol-Myers Squibb East Atlantic CV Region
BT Alex. Brown Inc.
R.W. Bozel Transfer Inc.
Corporate Healthcare Financing Inc./SBMC Inc.
Crestar
Crown Central Petroleum Corp.
DPI Business Infosystems/Cisco Systems
Diamond Comic Distribution Inc./H&S; Bakery
Dunbar Armored
Executive Sports Club
Fine Host
First Mariner/Ferris Baker Watts Inc./Gordon Feinblatt
Fox 45/WB54 Sinclair Broadcasting Group
Gatorade
Greater Baltimore Committee/Coopers & Lybrand
Ikon Office Solutions
Industrial Refrigeration Service Inc.
Integrated Health Services
K.L.M.K.
MBNA (two)
Maryland governor
Michael Warren Lasky
Legg Mason
Lerner Friedman Levinson & Klein
Live Sports Tours
Maggio Onorato and Associates Inc.
Maryland Stadium Authority
Mercantile
Michael's Cafe
Art Modell (two)
NationsBank
Nortel (Northern Telecom)
PHH/Cendant Corp./Aegon
Pepsi
Piper & Marbury/Fila/W.B. Doner
Polakahn
The Poole & Kent Organization
The President's Roundtable
T. Rowe Price
Provident
Prudential Securities
Ravens Radio/CBS Radio
The Rouse Co.
Ryland Group
SACO
The St. Paul/F+G Life
Skybox Associates
Snyder Weiner & Weltchek
Sprint PCS
Len Stoler Automotive
Tessco Technologies
The Tufton Group Inc. (Cal Ripken)
UTZ Quality Foods Inc.
Venable, Baetjer and Howard
WBAL Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.
WJZ-TV
WQSR/CBS Radio
Stan White and Associates/Brick Bodies/Samuel James Ltd.
Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
Wolvis Corp. (two)
Pub Date: 8/19/98