Marty Conway points out: every NFL team and every sports franchise is now in the business of capturing its fans and engaging them 365 days a year – not just eight times a year for three hours when they visit the stadium.
The Ravens have done a great job in many areas. But shutting down training camp in Westminster wasn’t fan friendly and it pissed a lot of people off. And given the economic limitations of the marketplace here sandwiched between Philadelphia and Washington, the club has enjoyed support and solid growth that should plant seeds for the future.
I’m really not sure how much collateral and civic goodwill I believed Bisciotti had built up over the years by running the franchise the right way and making good decisions in the aftermath of the purchase from Art Modell, but I’m stunned by the sudden abandonment of the franchise.
And I must say that I have seen The Ghost of the NFL Future and it happened in the hours before The Wembley Knee on The Tube as I roamed around London with thousands of other Ravens fans who saw the same thing up close.
The London thing is real.
The expansion of the league and the sport into Europe is as inevitable as the Cleveland Browns having the first pick in the draft. The “growing the game internationally” is the next step and any franchise that can’t sell tickets, can’t sell corporate sponsorships and is in a shrinking marketplace is going to be ripe to be the next team moved.
The Baltimore Ravens need to renegotiate their stadium lease in less than nine years. That time is coming.
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So is London. And Frankfurt. And Barcelona. And Mexico City. And Toronto.
And not to be flippant or too hand-meet-face, but these new wealthy NFL owners don’t give a flying fuck about anything other than money and profit. Show me one action over the past 25 years that proves otherwise.
And who knows if Steve Bisciotti still owns or controls the operation in 2027 or what Baltimore looks like then?
Missouri native Stan Kroenke sold out the city of St. Louis to make billions in Los Angeles. It’s America and these are the richest men in our culture. The only loyalty is to the color green and as the stakes get higher, I’m expecting the greed and avarice to ratchet up even more until such point that
