Baltimore will have some unlikely extended-stay visitors next week: The Los Angeles Rams.
The Rams play the Ravens on Sunday at 1 p.m. and then in London the following week. Rather than flying back to the West Coast, they’ll instead remain in the Baltimore area — practicing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards — before their Oct. 19 date with the Jacksonville Jaguars across the pond.
The Rams will be able to practice at the ballpark for a week beginning Saturday, the day before they face the Ravens. Their practices will not be open to the public.
The Maryland Stadium Authority, which operates as the landlord for Baltimore’s state-owned pro stadiums, approved the Orioles’ request for the usage during a board meeting Tuesday.
Initially, the Rams discussed the possibility of using M&T Bank Stadium, the authority’s executive director Michael Frenz said.
“But the field would get really torn up and they wouldn’t have time to get it in condition for the next Ravens home game, so they went to the Orioles, and the Orioles agreed,” Frenz said during the meeting.
The Rams have an agreement with the Orioles “to rent the space at Camden Yards,” said Orioles spokesperson Jennifer Grondahl, who declined to share the financial terms of the deal.
The Rams will pay for the ballpark’s operating costs during that time, but the agreement won’t directly generate revenue for the state, Frenz said. The Rams will use the field, the banquet areas and both clubhouses.
“It’s a great use of the facility,” said authority chair Craig Thompson.
The practices will mark the first time there is a non-baseball sporting event or practice at Oriole Park, according to Orioles historian Bill Stetka. Only baseball games and practices have been held at the park since it opened in 1992.
“This is a first,” Stetka wrote in an email.
For years, the team’s former owner, Peter Angelos, refused to host anything but ballgames — with the exception of a 1995 papal visit — at Camden Yards.
That changed in recent years as Angelos’s son, John Angelos, took over decision-making authority for the club before selling the team to David Rubenstein last year.
In recent years, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen have each played concerts at the stadium, and the Savannah Bananas played two exhibitions this summer. Those, however, were all ticketed events.
The Rams visit Baltimore during a time of turmoil for the Ravens, which had Super Bowl aspirations but are a shocking 1-4 and without injured quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Authority board member William Cole joked that he’d feel more comfortable voting “at about 4:00 on Sunday” to permit the Rams’ access — after the Rams v. Ravens game had concluded.
The board unanimously approved the motion.
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