Moore’s bumpy road to lease deal
Setbacks, hurdles have often come from fellow Democrats seeking transparency, changes
Four weeks before the Orioles’ stadium lease extension expired, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was moving quickly on a longterm lease to resolve a nagging issue that was becoming a political liability.
The Democratic governor launched a plan Dec. 8 to summon the Maryland Stadium Authority’s board to a special meeting the following Tuesday to approve a freshly negotiated agreement with the team that his administration believed improved upon an earlier, nonbinding proposal.
But Moore’s plan struck out with key elected officials after they were briefed that morning on the details.
State Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore, told Moore he would publicly oppose the deal. Ferguson later voiced his objections to how the lease was tied to granting the Orioles development rights for state-owned properties around Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and State Treasurer Dereck Davis said they needed more time to study the 150-page document. Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a Democrat, declined to say whether she opposed that earlier lease, but her office said in a statement that she’d raised issues — such as the importance of transparency around any development rights deal with the club — and was optimistic they would
be reflected in the final agreement.
For the second time in 10 weeks, the governor had pitched a long-awaited deal with the Orioles — or at least a blueprint for one — that he would need to amend later because of political opposition.
Moore, who made himself the public face of the state’s negotiations with the Orioles and promised to get the team committed to Baltimore for the long term, hammered out yet another proposed lease deal with the ballclub. The latest deal is scheduled to go before the Maryland Stadium Authority board and the Board of Public Works on Monday for approval.
This time, Moore made sure allies were on the bus before driving away.
Ferguson, whose Senate district includes the stadium, had urged the administration for months to finalize a lease independent of a plan sought by Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos to grant the ballclub development rights for portions of the stadium area.
Given Ferguson’s clear preference, many wondered why Moore initially chose on Dec. 8 to back a lease making the long-sought, 30-year Orioles lease contingent on the state giving up development rights to property
around the stadium, including the iconic B&O Warehouse.
“I was surprised that Sen. Ferguson was not totally briefed and on board” well before the lease was going to go before the stadium authority board and the Board of Public Works, former Maryland Stadium Authority Chairman Thomas Kelso, an appointee of Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, said at the time.
A week later, Kelso congratulated Moore for striking an amended deal that — this time — met with Ferguson’s approval. Kelso was holding out a final verdict as he gathered details about the lease, but said initially that the new agreement addressed “critical threshold issues.”
Under the new deal, the Orioles still would be able to negotiate exclusively for rights to redevelop the B&O Warehouse and an area surrounding Camden Yards.
But — unlike in the prior agreement — the club would need to submit a master plan. That plan, in effect a blueprint for the property, would have to be approved by the stadium authority and Board of Public Works.
“The land can’t be granted until we would know what the use is,” Ferguson said in an interview Friday.
Earlier, he thanked the governor in a statement Thursday night for his “willingness to hear the Senate’s genuine concerns and working to find a way forward.”
The new lease also would increase the team’s “base” commitment — the shortest the lease could be under various options — to 15 years, according to officials familiar with the document who spoke on condition of anonymity because the lease had not been approved. The base term had been 10 years in the version proposed a week earlier.
Obtaining state approval for ballclub benefits can be politically tricky, said Irwin Kishner, co-chair of the Sports Law Group with the New York law firm Herrick, Feinstein.
“Navigating the political waters here is extremely important, and a lot of that is done behind the scenes,” Kishner said. “Typically a governor, when they get involved, has a good sense of the politics — that’s why he’s governor — and a good sense of how to manage these things.”
The embarrassing onagain, off-again lease deal had forced Moore, who is considered a rising star within the Democratic Party, to expend valuable political capital as he approaches his second General Assembly session next month. He has promised that the lease ultimately will be “bigger than baseball” because of its potential for a partnership with the team to redevelop the stadium area.
It remains to be seen whether Moore will sustain any lasting political damage.
“I think the biggest concerns of the people are that we keep the Orioles and what will this development look like for the city,” said Roger E. Hartley, dean of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs. “There’s a chance it won’t impact him or his political future unless either of these things go wrong. Or if this continues for years, then it would look bad.”
That’s because the lease had seemed to be done Sept. 28 when Moore and Angelos announced a “deal” at an Orioles game that turned out to be a nonbinding blueprint called a “memorandum of understanding,” Hartley said.
“I know for many this process has been long, and the team that worked on securing this deal has done so diligently with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind,” Moore said as the deal was announced.