Ravens officials on Tuesday announced a new round of renovations planned for M&T Bank Stadium, including a tailgate and concert venue, field-level seating and infrastructure investments.
Construction on the 25-year-old stadium, which is expected to be completed in stages from 2024 to 2026, will “take us through the next evolution of M&T Bank Stadium,” team president Sashi Brown told The Baltimore Banner in an interview last week.
Several areas around the Ravens’ longtime home will undergo significant makeovers as part of what Brown called “fan experience enhancements.” The north plaza that faces Oriole Park at Camden Yards will feature two new structures flanking the gates to M&T Bank Stadium: on the west end, an open-air tailgate and concert venue with three levels of viewing and an indoor sports bar; and on the east end, a 7,000-square-foot retail space featuring a team hospitality area. The north plaza renovations are expected to be finished by 2025.
On the stadium’s east side, outside Gate B, a two-level beer hall called The Gatehouse, featuring a rooftop deck, is set to be erected in the next year. A flagship Ravens retail store that will be open year-round starting in 2026 will anchor the stadium’s south plaza, near Warner Street. An expanded concourse on the stadium’s upper levels, with improved restroom capacity, will also be completed by 2025.
New club-level and suite areas are also expected to open over the next two years. The Blackwing, located just below the club level along the Ravens’ sideline and debuting in 2024, will feature 10 individual suites connected to a high-end private club.
Renovations to M&T Bank Stadium’s lowest level will also make field-level seating available starting in 2025. The South Club will feature a view of the Ravens’ player tunnel at the 50-yard line, while suites in the west end zone will offer two rows of on-field seating. Limited on-field seating will also be available in the North Club.
Brown said in his interview that as Ravens officials formulated their renovation plans, they visited other stadiums and arenas, including non-sports venues; gathered feedback from permanent-seat-license holders and other fans through surveys and focus groups; and consulted with their architecture firm, Gensler.
“Our fans are central in everything that we do,” Brown said. “We think we have a great game day experience and fan experience already. But we want to continue to invest in that and make sure that we position M&T Bank Stadium to be one of the great and top stadiums for the Ravens and for all live events. So it’s a core part of our mission.”
In May, the state’s Board of Public Works approved a request from the Maryland Stadium Authority, which owns M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to issue $450 million in bonds to fund the Ravens’ stadium renovations. With the team signing a lease in January that extended its commitment in Baltimore through 2037, the MSA was able access public money earmarked for stadium improvements.
Approximately $430 million will be spent in this round of renovations, according to a Ravens spokesman. Brown said “tens of millions of dollars” would be allocated toward M&T Bank Stadium’s infrastructure and systems, including digging out the service level so that it fully encompasses the stadium instead of stopping partway around.
The Ravens’ last major stadium project, a three-year, team-funded $120 million renovation completed in 2019, included two 4K ultra-high-definition video displays, upgrades to the sound systems, and new escalators and elevators to the upper deck.
“We recognize that this is a state asset,” said Brown, who succeeded former team president Dick Cass in 2022. “I think we and MSA were aligned. The foremost thing was making sure that we identified the types of infrastructure and types of investments that we needed to make in the stadium to ensure that for another 14 seasons, and hopefully beyond, the stadium’s in great structural condition to last. …
“That’s not the most exciting part, but that’s, I think, a really important part whenever public dollars are involved. We want to be really prudent and thoughtful about M&T Bank as a community-owned asset.”
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