This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
This content was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
The Maryland Stadium Authority on Tuesday voted to opt out of a revenue sharing agreement with the Orioles for an upcoming Bruce Springsteen concert.
This is the third time the authority has opted out of a cut stemming from events not related to baseball games. Instead, the authority, which manages Oriole Park at Camden Yards, will settle for roughly $800,000 — the lion’s share of amusement tax revenue.
“As you know each team, the Orioles and the Ravens, have expressed the opinion that our participating financially in these events represents a significant disincentive for them to hold such events,” Michael J. Frenz, Maryland Stadium Authority executive director, said during Tuesday’s meeting.
The Bruce Springsteen concert at the ballpark on Saturday is the third concert in just over a year. Billy Joel and Paul McCartney also performed at the park in 2022.
About 40,000 people are expected to attend, Frenz said.
Under the current lease between the team and the authority, the team gets a 10% fee off the top for any non-baseball event organized by the team. After that, the Orioles and authority would split what remains with 55% going to the team and 45% going to the authority.
The contract allows the authority to opt out of its share.
“There are also benefits to the city and state from the economic activity generated from the concert and also the diversity — but that’s a bit complex — because there are a lot of people who aren’t sports fans,” said Frenz. “So, this provides something for people who wish to come to the complex and enjoy something other than sports.”
When asked how much the authority potentially would forgo, Frenz could not provide an exact figure.
The authority is currently in negotiations with the Orioles over a new long-term lease of the stadium.
Both the Orioles and Ravens have parity agreements in their leases which guarantee the authority treats both teams equally. That likely would mean that a new lease with the Orioles would mirror the new deal inked with the Ravens that does not include revenue sharing with the authority on non-sports events organized by the team.
Some members of the authority board asked if it was likely the Orioles would hold more events and generate more revenue for the authority, if the board continued to forgo a larger revenue share.
“Yes, exactly and that’s really the reason for doing that. One way to look at it is 10% of nothing is nothing,” said Frenz, who was also asked if the team held two concerts in the last year, could they be expected to host three in the coming year.
“Maybe, it depends on the concert schedule and the baseball schedule,” said Frenz. “Yeah, I mean, I think that since we’ve opted out, they’ve done three. Prior to that they did none.”
