Located
in downtown Baltimore, M&T Bank Stadium
and Oriole Park at Camden Yards are premier
stadiums in Major League Baseball and in
the National Football League. After the
Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis after
the 1984 season, local leaders of Baltimore
began talking about building a new football
stadium to lure a team back to Baltimore.
However, that took more than a decade to
happen. In the mid 1990’s, owner of
the Cleveland Browns, Art Model wanted a
new stadium for his team to replace, the
colossal and deteriorating Cleveland Municipal
Stadium. After not being able to reach an
agreement to build a new stadium in Cleveland,
Model moved his team to Baltimore after
the 1995 season; where local officials promised
to build a new state of the art football
facility. Officials in Baltimore decided
to build the new stadium next to Oriole
Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore
Orioles (MLB). While the stadium was being
constructed, the Baltimore Ravens had to
play at Memorial Stadium for two years,
which was home of the Baltimore Colts prior
to moving to Indianapolis. PSINet Inc.,
originally purchased the naming rights to
the stadium, thus getting the name PSINet
Stadium. However, after the 2001 season,
the PSINet name was dropped and the stadium
was renamed Ravens Stadium. In May 2003,
M&T Bank purchased the naming rights
for $5 million annually over 15 years.
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