Angelos reiterates pledge to Baltimore

Orioles CEO says team will never leave city

SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos reiterated in a radio interview Wednesday that the team’s future is in Baltimore despite uncertainty over the club’s future ownership.

In an interview on 105.7 The Fan’s Inside Access show that will air in segments this month, Angelos — who Major League Baseball team owners voted privately last year to act as “control person” for the club — said rumors that the team might leave the city are “untrue.”

“The team would never move,” he said. “It will never move. It’s here now, it’s here forever, it’s been here for 66-odd years and it’s going to be here for 66 more, or longer.

“What I can say without any speculation, I’ve said it before, is the Orioles will never leave Baltimore. No one in this partnership group, who are local, homegrown folks, would allow that to happen or would want that to happen, and that will not happen.”

Angelos has publicly said the same in recent years, including at a luncheon of city business leaders in 2019 when he promised the Orioles will be in Baltimore “as long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor.”

In November, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias wrote in a letter to fans that “there is nothing uncertain about the future of your Orioles in Baltimore.”

The speculation to the contrary was fueled by the fact that the team’s lease at Camden Yards with the Maryland Stadium Authority was set to expire at the end of 2021, but the team and stadium authority agreed to a two-year extension last month.

That deal — which was characterized by both parties as a placeholder while they continue to negotiate a deal to keep the team at the stadium for the long term — pushes the Orioles’ option to extend the deal five more years to the end of 2023.