Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti is hopeful that the team's M&T Bank Stadium lease, which expires in 2027, will be extended another 25 years.
"What Marylanders, what Baltimore deserves is a 25-year extension five years early and get us back to a 30-year lease," Bisciotti said during the NFL league meetings.
The Maryland Stadium Authority, which acts as a landlord to both M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, wants to increase a debt cap for investment in the downtown Baltimore sports complex by more than five times its current limit of $235 million, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
"I'm really happy to hear that the money's there to be allocated, to figure it out," Bisciotti said. "We've got five more years on this lease. I've put more than $150 million of my own money into that stadium. I've got no problem doing it, but it's time we look long-term."
City planners are hoping to grow the area near the stadium into a bigger entertainment complex. M&T Bank Stadium has been the Ravens' home venue since 1998, and extensive stadium renovations were completed in 2019.
"There's no way in the world that we would ever want to move out of that Camden Yards complex," Bisciotti said. "I'm thrilled that the state is saying, 'Let's get ahead of this thing. We've got the money now, let's escrow it.'
"To me, that's really the biggest news of this offseason. When that's there, and we can start planning how to grow into these next 30 years, it's big. It's big for me, personally. You might be stuck with me for a long time if we get to keep upgrading that stadium."
