Editorial: John Angelos, Did You Just Gaslight The Fans?
A recent report from the Maryland Stadium Authority’s agenda has nothing in terms of Oriole Park at Camden Yards lease talks. The lease ends on December 31st.
Do you remember the game where they announced that the Angelos family, the Maryland Stadium Authority, and Governor Wes Moore announced that lease was officially signed and that the Orioles would be around for the next 30 years or more?
Maryland Sports Blog remembers…
There was never a lease signed, fans, it was just a memorandum of understanding that they would continue talks.
The Maryland Stadium Authority is set to meet Tuesday but there is no discussions coming on the impending lease expiration of Oriole Park at Camden Yards which is leading fans to believe that they just got gaslit that a brand new lease was signed and relief was on the horizon with the fanbase. No talks scheduled between the Tuesday meeting and the end of the year.
Yes folks, you did get gaslit because there was never a lease signing, it was just a memorandum of understanding that states more talks will be held to hammer out a deal for the Orioles and John Angelos. However, there’s no talks scheduled between the Government, Governor Moore, and the Orioles ownership. This is starting to anger fans severely as the report came out on X (formerly twitter) in regards to this. Another report (though still unconfirmed) is that there could in fact be an extraordinary session of the Maryland Legislature to fund the extra money that Angelos wants through an increase of the sales tax from 6% to 8% (adding of 2%). That’s just going to drive more and more citizens out of the state. Maryland taxpayers right now are bent over a barrel with some of the highest state and county-wide property taxes and some of the worst piggyback taxes in all of the nation. Governor Moore, the taxpayer cannot afford handing over another billion-plus dollars to John Angelos and the team ownership.
What is it that Angelos wants? The Orioles gave him $600,000,000 for upgrades and that’s more than plenty to satisfy any owner. The Orioles Ownership (Hoffberger to Angelos) have actually received $1.3 BILLION in public funds since 1988 ($37.1M per year average) which is one of the highest in baseball per Spotrac business reports.
To me, this is upsetting, because as a Baltimore Orioles fan of 36 years, I wholeheartedly believe that the situation is just absolutely avoidable with just the stroke of a pen from John Angelos agreeing to the parameters of the agreement. Governor Moore has stipulated that there will be no more money given to him other than the $600,000,000 that was given to him to update and upgrade the stadium. But it is apparent to me, AS THE FAN, that this man DOES NOT have the funds necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the ownership. It is high time for the Angelos family to put the team up for sale to a consortium or a single owner with the funds necessary to run the team because John Angelos certainly doesn’t have the money to run the team and it’s showing because of all of what he said: “I’d have to raise prices”, “I’d have to do this”, “I’d have to do that.” The same old lame excuses of the team ownership not wanting to sign high-end talent to generally improve the team.
Mr. John Angelos, for the love of the game of baseball, and Orioles fans across the nation, we implore you that the time has come: Please sell the team. If Dan Snyder can pack his crap up and leave because the fans and his “criminal” behavior got him to do it. Well you can do the same too.
We, the fans, deserve better than this and were just gaslit, duped, and led on.
John Angelos, please sell the team.
