More than four years after Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti committed to Baltimore County funds for a recreational football field in Owings Mills, some community leaders said they?re wondering why the field is yet unbuilt.
The Ravens agreed to spend $200,000 on a lighted football field for public use, according to the lease it negotiated in 2002 for 32 acres of county-owned land to build a $31 million training facility. The Ravens have yet to fulfill certain obligations, residents said, including the field.
“There were promises to benefit the community,” said Bill Bralove, president of an umbrella group of Randallstown and Owings Mills community associations. “It would have been nothing for them to make one more field. They did several for themselves.”
The lease specified everything from field grading to the types of sod but assigned a parking lot and restrooms to the county. The team submitted a conceptual plan for the field, said Recreation and Parks deputy director John Markley, but county-funded engineering studies estimated the total project at $2.4 million.
“As we moved forward, there wasn?t enough money in the budget to build this field the way it should be,” Markley said. “We tried to come up with ways to make it less expensive, but we really never could.”
Instead, Markley said the county spend $750,000 to light fields at the nearby Northwest Regional Park. The grading and subsurface soil conditions at the other site means a future park ? and cashing in on the Ravens? obligation anytime soon ? is questionable, he said.
Markley said the county approached the team about using the funds to expand parking at Northwest Regional Park. Team spokesman Kevin Byrne declined comment.
“This isn?t on the top of the priority list,” Byrne said.
Meanwhile, residents noted other potential contract breaches.
The lease limited the training facility to 120,000 square feet but is actually 200,000 square feet, according to the team?s Web site. County officials said they could not offer an explanation at this time.
But County Councilman Vince Gardina, D-District 5, said the discrepancies aren?t surprising. Calling the agreement a “sweetheart deal,” Gardina voted against leasing the land.
Negotiated under the direction of former Democratic County Executive and now Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, the 25-year lease is renewable for 30 additional years. The county initially funded access to public water and sewer, and the team pays the county $743 each month during the first term.
“We have limited open space funds and they should be used for public use,” Gardina said. “The Ravens could certainly afford a parcel somewhere else.”
The team has exceeded its obligation to open the facility to the limited public at least three times a year, according to county spokesman Don Mohler, mostly with recreational championship games, meet and greets with players and coaching clinics.
