4 October 2023
Six days after the Orioles and the state of Maryland announced a 30-year deal to keep the team at Camden Yards and five days after it was revealed that the agreement was a memorandum of understanding, and not a lease contract, Gov. Wes Moore emphasized the importance of the MOU and guaranteed a lease would get signed.
“Mark my words, and you can bet on it, the Orioles will be here for 30 years,” Moore said in an impassioned speech Wednesday during a meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works in Annapolis.
One of the largest priorities for the Moore administration has been securing a long-term lease with the Orioles — who have negotiated with the state for years, since the Gov. Larry Hogan administration — and Moore stressed Wednesday that the agreement was not merely a ballpark lease, but is “bigger than baseball.” The state built and owns the ballpark, which is rented by the Orioles.
The aim of a future lease, both the Moore administration and the Orioles have said, is to revitalize the area around Camden Yards.
“This is not just about a baseball stadium,” he said. “This agreement will play a critical role in shaping the economic future of the city of Baltimore and of our state and will unlock opportunities for generations of Baltimoreans and generations of Marylanders.”
According to the nonbinding MOU, which was signed by Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos and Maryland Stadium Authority Chairman Craig Thompson, the Orioles would have the right to work with private firms to develop land around the stadium, including the warehouse and Camden Station. The development rights would cost the team an average of less than $1 million annually over 99 years.
The state would also contribute $3.3 million annually ($100 million over 30 years) to the Orioles, permitting the club to make repairs to the stadium, instead of the state, which owns the venue.
Meanwhile, the Orioles’ rent payments to lease the ballpark, which annually average just under $7 million, would be eliminated. The team would instead be responsible for stadium operations and management — a deal that officials said will save the state money. It is a similar arrangement to one that the stadium authority has with the NFL’s Ravens.
In a commentary in The Baltimore Sun Wednesday, former stadium authority Chair Thomas Kelso criticized the MOU, saying there are “numerous issues that need scrutiny.” In particular, Kelso pointed to the fact that the Orioles, not the state, will have the power to make state-funded improvements to the ballpark.
“These changes will eviscerate the MSA’s role and responsibility at Oriole Park and reverse nearly four decades of success,” he wrote.
Kelso noted that “long-serving, exceptionally loyal MSA employees will lose their jobs, pensions and benefits” because of this change. Stadium authority officials have assured the board that MSA employees would either be hired by the Orioles or would otherwise receive state jobs.
Thursday’s announcement of a 30-year deal came after years of negotiations between the state and the Orioles. The club signed a 30-year lease to begin playing at Camden Yards when it opened, in 1992, and that agreement was extended in 2021 to Dec. 31, 2023.
As the Orioles played Thursday night, ultimately clinching an American League East title, the video board showed Angelos and Moore seated together with a message that the state and Orioles had “agreed to a deal that will keep the Orioles in Baltimore and at Camden Yards for at least the next 30 years!!”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and the Ravens both congratulated the Orioles on their new “lease.”
However, that deal was not as concrete as a lease contract, it was revealed the next day. Moore, who worked as a CEO before he became governor, explained his reasoning for the MOU Wednesday.
“I do think it’s important to take a moment to remind everybody that in these type of multidecade, multibillion dollar commercial deals, that memorandums of understanding, like the one that we announced last week, are not only commonplace, but in many cases, they’re prerequisites and a key step to being able to getting deals done,” he said.
The Ravens, however, agreed to a lease earlier this year without first establishing an MOU. The NFL team and the state began negotiating in mid-August 2022, according to Kelso, and the deal was finalized by a Board of Public Works vote on Jan. 4.
“We specifically avoided an MOU because it is worthless,” Kelso told The Sun. “You either have an executable lease or you don’t. The time spent negotiating an MOU is wasted and could have been better spent just working on the lease.”
It’s unknown when, exactly, a lease will be signed. The lease, in its current form, could be extended by a year or two before Dec. 31.
Ahead of the stadium authority’s monthly board meeting Tuesday, its agenda did not include mention of lease negotiations, but an item was later added, noting that “lease negotiations” would be discussed in a closed session. However, there was no closed session during the meeting and the negotiations were not discussed. A stadium authority spokesperson did not reply to a request to explain why the agenda was changed.
Moore said Wednesday that he looked forward to bringing a lease agreement before the Board of Public Works “in the near future.”
The governor’s comments Wednesday marked his first time speaking extensively about the arrangement since it was announced Thursday and outlined Friday by state officials, who declined to be named because negotiations are ongoing.
Moore spoke Wednesday as he and the rest of the procurement board — which includes Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck Davis — approved the first contract under a law that will allow both the Orioles and Ravens to finance $600 million each in stadium improvements in the coming years, paid for by state lottery money. The contract approved Wednesday was for $6.6 million in improvements to M&T Bank Stadium as the Ravens prepare some changes to the stadium, including relocating the press box, by August 2024.
The Orioles will not be able to similarly capitalize on the large state investment until a long-term lease is signed. The arrangement is a favorable one for the pro teams, economists who study the topic have said, warning that stadium subsidies are almost always a bad deal for taxpayers.
The deal, worth at least $1.2 billion, was approved by the Maryland General Assembly and Hogan in 2022 to ensure both teams sign long-term deals to remain in the city. The Ravens signed such a deal earlier this year.
“This is a historic investment,” Moore said. “It’s a historic investment that was split evenly between M&T Bank Stadium and also Oriole Park and it’s available to both teams upon the execution of leases by the respective teams.”
Moore had confident words, too, for the Orioles on the field. The ballclub has been the best story in baseball this year, winning 101 games, their most since 1979.
“This is Maryland. We do big things in Maryland. There is going to be World Series baseball in Baltimore and not just this year, but for years to come,” he said.
Baltimore will host its first playoff game in nine years on Saturday as the Orioles, the No. 1 seed in the American League, play Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
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