John Angelos on lockout, lease, concert, rebuild and more

As baseball's lockout bleeds deeper into the month of February, threatening an on-time start to the 2022 season, Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos remains hopeful that his club will be on the field March 31 for opening day at Camden Yards.

Negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association will resume next week, perhaps with daily sessions, as the sides attempt to reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement by Feb. 28. Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that a four-week period for spring training is essential.

MLB announced this afternoon that exhibition games are canceled at least through March 4.

"I hope the season starts on time, I hope there's a full schedule. That's what the fans want, that's what the players want, that's what the teams what," Angelos said this morning in a Zoom call with the local media.

"The collective bargaining process is just that. It's a process. The Orioles, and I am not on the labor committee, we're not involved directly in the negotiations, so I'd really like to leave that to the commissioner's office and the owners that are on the labor relations committee and our friends at the players association. I'm hoping for the best just like all of you are, but I can't make any predictions. I certainly think it would be good for Baltimore and good for baseball fandom to play."

Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias isn't ready to break down the team's plans for spring training until there's a resolution.

"I think that once the circumstances present themselves, we're going to do everything we can with the opportunity to train all these guys," he said. "I think it's going to be a very exciting year up and down the organization. We've got young players coming to Sarasota soon to begin training for minor league spring training. Right now, the organization is focused on that and the amateur scouting activities that are going on."

There are other negotiations that draw Angelos' interest - between the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority on a long-term lease. The team agreed last February to extend it through 2023.

Angelos prefers to have a new deal in place before Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan completes his second term next January.

"I don't know, I can't predict that, but I would say that the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority have never at any point in time from the first minute I got together and sat down with (MSA chairman) Tom Kelso, neither one of us has ever said anything other than, 'We can't wait to extend and renew this public-private partnership'. It's been a great, great success," Angelos said.

"If we can do that during Gov. Hogan's term, I think that would be wonderful for everybody, and certainly I think it would be appropriate because the governor has been a big supporter and is somebody that has a great vision for partnerships and for public/private partnerships. ... I'm very optimistic, but I can't predict that, either."

Angelos spoke after this morning's news conference at the warehouse to announce the Paul McCartney concert at Camden Yards on June 12 - an event, like Billy Joel's show in 2019, that increases the ballpark's value beyond baseball.

"I think when the team and the state and the city can work together, and we do have to work together, although the Orioles are carrying the load on pursuing something like a Paul McCartney and a Billy Joel and other things that we have up on the wish list, it would only work ultimately if we as a community can fulfill and execute," Angelos said. "To do that, you need Tom Kelso on board, you need the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, on board. We all have to sort of win with it and I have every confidence that we will.

"Does it make the Orioles do better in the partnership (with MSA)? I'm sure it does. It's better to have 83, 84, 85 events than 81. It's better to bring another 40,000 or 50,000 or more people to downtown Baltimore. Baltimore is a great city and we need it, we need more people coming back downtown.

"I think it does help the Orioles' position in terms of saying we want to be part of the solution, we want to be a drawing card, we want to continue to do what we've done over 30 years. ... I'd like to think in our next phase of the partnership we're not so much thinking about it in terms of a lease. Certainly, there will be negotiations. But I think the next phase of this is a public/private partnership, much like what the Orioles have done over the last 10-12 years in Sarasota, where we really are partnered with state, county and the city and we drive in that case nearly $100 million in economic impact a year."

The Orioles moved their spring training home from Fort Lauderdale to Sarasota in 2010.

"We really are partnered with the state, the county and the city and we drive nearly $100 million in economic impact a year," he said. "If you went down and asked any of the stakeholders there, they would say, 'It's a public/private partnership with a memorandum of understanding.' They really wouldn't use the word 'lease,' but certainly there's always that time where you negotiation. I just hope we look at it that we're all winning together."

The team is trying to do the same, but must get through a rebuild that accelerated with Elias' hiring in November 2018. The Orioles lost more than 100 games in the last two full seasons and again earned the first overall pick in the upcoming draft.

"I go by what I hear others say, as well as by what Mike and his team are doing," Angelos said, "and I think by most accounts, the work that Mike and Sig (Mejdal) and Brandon (Hyde) and the team there has done there to build not only the present, but the future in the international market, modernizing scouting and player development, investing in technology, all of those things that have moved us by all accounts up the ranks of the scouting, development rankings, are all good indicators.

"Nobody has guarantees, nobody has a crystal ball. Certainly, Mike and Sig and Brandon and the team are aspiring to get all the great results and put us back where we were a few years ago in terms of being competitive. So, I think all the news is good, and in terms of the prospects for the future, only time will tell.

"I will say, I don't think Mike and his team or anyone else envisioned the rapid advancement in the perception of the talent in the Orioles' scouting and player development system, and some of that talent certainly comes from prior drafts that predate Mike, but other of the talent comes from Mike's time here, and I think that the ascension of the perception of the system is nothing but a great thing. I'm really proud of what the team has accomplished, and I think it's really going to be beneficial for Baltimore. I certainly hope it will be."

Success figures to bring more fans to the ballpark, where attendance has declined since the teardown began.

"From 2012 to 2016, when I think about the attendance, which really wasn't that long ago, less than a handful of years before the pandemic sort of changed the world for all of us, what the Orioles were drawing to downtown Baltimore at the end of that five-year period of good play was a decent attendance, but I think we could have done better," Angelos said.

"I think we would have done better had we maybe explored best practices. You can always market better, sell better, prepare better, make the customer experience better. And so I look at that high point of 2012 to 2016 as not the highest point we could have reached then, and I think that's a good marker because that means if we do everything right, or many, if not most things right, for the next five-year period of competitiveness, we can do even better than that.

"I don't see why if we do things right and are good stewards of the ballpark and the experience, and that Mike does a great job with his team of what goes on between the lines, why shouldn't we draw 2 1/2 million or more. Maybe significantly more. That's certainly the aspiration. Whether we get there, we'll see."

The concert lands on the 30th anniversary of Camden Yards, which the club will be celebrating this summer.

"I'm bullish on Baltimore, I think Baltimore is a great city, I think we all do," Angelos said. "I think when Paul McCartney chooses Baltimore, when Billy Joel chooses Baltimore, when 75 million people come to downtown Baltimore, that's gratifying if you grew up here.

"When we went to Sarasota 12 years ago, we said we would generate $40-45 million in economic impact every year and we more than doubled that. I think when you under-promise and over-deliver for your home away from home in Sarasota, that's a good thing. I think when you do it for the place you grew up, that's the greatest thing.

"I think we're all really proud of that 75 million, and you add in what the Ravens have drawn and the fact that this Camden Yards complex is approaching 100 million, that's just an awesome thing. I think if you're not as old as some of us are on this call, you don't know what a revolutionary idea it was. In the '60s and '70s and '80s they were building these sports venues on beltways and out in the suburbs and in empty fields. People were leaving cities, and this was a big chance that people took, to reinvest in downtown and to do an iconic ballpark, and it worked big-time.

"That's why we have a desire, an inspiration and an obligation, I think, to make it work for the next 30 years, and that's on us and the Ravens and MSA and everybody. Why shouldn't we draw another 70, 80, 90 million in the next 30 years? So, part of doing that is to extend yourself. We could sit back and do 81 games, but why should we do that? We should go get these artists. Let's go get Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters, let's get them all to come to Baltimore. And I can't think of a better venue, better located, better managed, better run, better built. So, why shouldn't every iconic artist play at Camden Yards? They should. I'm super proud of that and it means a lot to everybody who's grown up here."