4 October 2023
In what will be one of the most eventful days the Camden Yards complex has seen in recent years, the Orioles will bat leadoff.
Before rock legends Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks play a joint show at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m., the Orioles will host Game 1 of the American League Division Series at 1 p.m. They will face either the Texas Rangers or the Tampa Bay Rays.
Start times for the Orioles’ other ALDS games, including Game 2 in Baltimore, were not yet announced by MLB.
Weather could be a factor Saturday. Chance of precipitation is 50%, according to the National Weather Service.
As the best team in the AL, the Orioles received a bye through the wild-card round of the playoffs, but will begin the best-of-five series Saturday. It marks the first playoff appearance since 2016 for the Orioles, who surprised the baseball world this season by winning 101 games, the club’s most since 1979.
The Ravens announced in January that Joel and Nicks would play at M&T Bank Stadium on Oct. 7. At that time, there was no known conflict with the Orioles, although there was always possibility Baltimore could host a postseason game that day. That became a reality when the Orioles finished as one of the AL’s top two division winners, awarding them home field advantage in Game 1 of the ALDS.
Hosting the events simultaneously is not feasible as it would create downtown congestion on roads and in the parking lots shared by the stadiums, which are both located on the same 85-acre parcel. Each event is likely to draw at least 40,000 people, which would create a logistical dilemma if they were to occur at the same time, given the number of attendees who typically drive.
Hosting the events back-to-back will still be a challenge, as the end of the Orioles game could coincide with concertgoers’ early arrival downtown. Earlier this year, the Ravens hosted 19,217 fans at an open practice at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 29, before the New York Yankees visited Camden Yards to face the Orioles at 7:15 p.m in front of a crowd of 42,829.
At Tuesday’s Maryland Stadium Authority board meeting, Vernon Conaway, vice president of public safety and security, referenced July 29 as he discussed how the authority, which owns both venues, would handle Saturday’s events.
“We have a model for being able to pull off two events on the same day,” he said. “It’s going to rely on communications, coordination and cooperation by all the partners.”
The Joel and Nicks show is M&T Bank’s first standalone concert since Metallica played there in May 2017, on a day the Orioles were on the road.
The shared complex has created conflicts before. After the Ravens won Super Bowl XVLII, they were scheduled to follow tradition and host the opening game of the NFL’s 2013 season. However, the Orioles had a home game scheduled on the same date and the teams could not reach an agreement; instead, the Ravens played that week in Denver against the Broncos.
This story may be updated.
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