Stadium lease talks ‘still under negotiation’
Team’s agreement with Maryland scheduled to come to an end on Dec. 31
The Orioles have been tenants of Oriole Park at Camden Yards for more than 30 years. Their current lease agreement keeps them there for fewer than 30 more days.
As the calendar marches toward Dec. 31 and the end of the Orioles’ lease at state-owned Camden Yards, the ballclub and the state formally remain without a deal keeping the team at the stadium in 2024 and beyond.
Of course, the team is expected to remain in the city. The Orioles and the state signed a memorandum of understanding in September promising at least 30 more years at the ballpark and the team’s 2024 schedule opens with a game in Baltimore on March 28. But for the first time since the ballpark opened in 1992, the Orioles have entered the final month of their lease.
Gov. Wes Moore said last week that the Maryland Stadium Authority, which is the team’s landlord, and the state “are literally working around the clock with the Orioles.”
Core components of a potential lease were outlined in September’s memorandum, which is nonbinding, but the parties have continued negotiating a lease contract. Any lease would require approval from the stadium authority and the Board of Public Works, the state’s three-person spending board headed by Moore, a Democrat.
The stadium authority’s final monthly board meeting of 2023 took place Tuesday without discussion of a lease.
“It’s still under negotiation,” stadium authority Executive Director Michael Frenz said after the meeting. “Obviously, that’s why it wasn’t on the agenda today.”
Although the authority does not have another board meeting scheduled until January, it could schedule an ad hoc
meeting later this month — which it did about a year ago to approve the Ravens’ lease with the state. The final Board of Public Works meeting of the year is Dec. 13, but a special session could be called after that.
Frenz declined to detail the ongoing negotiations, but said sticking points include “questions of control, questions of real estate development.”
September’s memorandum, signed by Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos and stadium
authority Chairman Craig Thompson, proposed a lease agreement in tandem with a ground lease, which would allow the Orioles to develop land around the ballpark, including the B&O Warehouse. However, the ballpark lease itself now might be signed independent of the ground lease.
The ground lease “is envisioned to be separate from the stadium-use agreement,” Frenz said, later noting that while the documents would go through formal channels separately, he expects they would remain on the same timeline.
Frenz was asked what
might happen in the event the parties do not come to an agreement or extend the current lease by Dec. 31.
“My suspicion is that they would continue to be on sort of a month-to-month type of lease agreement. I mean, certainly, we’re not going to kick them out on [Dec. 31] or Jan. 1,” he said.
In a statement sent by the stadium authority later on Tuesday, Frenz clarified his comments.
“My comments earlier today were a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question, and weren’t describing the current state of the negotiations,” he said in a statement. “The MSA
is committed to finalizing a long-term deal with the Orioles and is focused on keeping baseball in Baltimore for years to come.”
That’s been the message from all sides throughout negotiations — that the Orioles are not going anywhere. Frenz again assured the public that the Orioles would remain in Baltimore for “a very long time.”
By signing a long-term lease, the Orioles would unlock at least $600 million in state-funds for improvements to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Until then, those public funds cannot be accessed.
In late September, on the same night the Orioles clinched the American League East amidst a dream season, Angelos and Moore appeared together as the scoreboard announced the Orioles and state had agreed to a “deal” keeping the team in Baltimore for at least 30 years. That arrangement, however, proved to be the nonbinding memorandum and, more than two months later, the sides continue to negotiate.
Asked if it was a mistake for the memorandum to be announced in that manner, Frenz said: “The governor is the governor. It’s his prerogative to make announcements the way he wishes to do so.”
While the state and Orioles leadership continue to negotiate a lease deal, Orioles Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias is in Nashville for MLB’s winter meetings, looking for starting and relief pitching as the team seeks to build upon a stellar 2023 season. In regards to the lease situation affecting the club’s ability to spend money to acquire players this offseason, Elias said, “that’s not a factor.”