Most recently, the Arena Football League’s Baltimore Brigade played home games at the arena, but the AFL ceased operations in 2019. “Īs of now, Royal Farms Arena does not house a regular tenant. It’s maybe a year, potentially even less. We would likely go dark, complete construction and then reopen. “We think that that’s the most efficient way to do it both from a cost standpoint and from a disruption to downtown. “The intent is absolutely to close the arena and knock out ,” Tarbert said. Assuming that occurs, what’s the next step? Tarbert said a timetable for the renovation will be determined once the BDC finishes negotiating a lease and management agreement with Oak View Group that is approved by the city’s Board of Estimates. However, a renovated arena would feature suites and premium seating options that don’t exist at the current arena. Tarbert didn’t say how many seats a renovated arena would have but did say it’d fall short of the 18,500 to 20,000 seats typical for a NBA or NHL arena. Royal Farms Arena currently has about 11,000 fixed seats. A brand new arena would cost between $400 million and $500 million, according to Tarbert. Tarbert said the renovation would cost between $150 million and $200 million. Oak View Group and its partners Thirty Five Ventures, founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman, would oversee and fund the renovation project. We can bring a lot more excitement to downtown by moving forward now than we can hoping that something might fall out of the sky that’s highly unlikely according to industry experts.” … We think this is definitely the right strategic move. I don’t think we can afford to wait another five years. “We’ve been trying to for the last 20 years and you see what the result’s been,” Tarbert said on Glenn Clark Radio June 24. The Capitals and Wizards have territorial rights to Baltimore, and the chances of a third team coming to Charm City would be remote anyway given the Baltimore’s market size. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced June 23 that the Baltimore Development Corporation would enter exclusive negotiations with Los Angeles-based Oak View Group on a lease and managing agreement to renovate Royal Farms Arena, which opened in downtown Baltimore nearly 60 years ago.īDC president and CEO Colin Tarbert believes renovating Royal Farms Arena is the best path forward for the city rather than trying to build a brand new arena for an NHL or NBA team that’s extremely unlikely to come to town.
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