Ravens Will Open Season On Road

[TheImmortalGoud]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9085731/baltimore-ravens-open-2013-season-road-due-scheduling-conflict-baltimore-orioles

BALTIMORE -- The Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens will open their title defense on the road next season because of a scheduling conflict with the Orioles.

The NFL wanted to have the Ravens start at home on Sept. 5 as part of its annual Thursday night season opener. Instead, the NFL says the Ravens will play somewhere else.

The Orioles are scheduled to host the Chicago White Sox that same night. The Ravens and Orioles have adjacent stadiums and share a parking lot, so they avoid playing at the same time because of the traffic.

"After thorough discussions among the Orioles, the NFL and the Ravens, it became clear that holding both an Orioles' game and the Ravens' regular season opener on the same day would create logistical situations that would cause serious issues for the city of Baltimore, and fans for both teams," Ravens president Dick Cass said in a statement. "The Ravens greatly appreciate the willingness of the Orioles to adjust the start of their game in an effort to make this sports spectacular happen.

"But, in the end, anticipated problems with parking, rush-hour traffic, plus crowd and car congestion around Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium, will keep the doubleheader from taking place."

The Orioles say both teams and the leagues looked at moving the starting time of the baseball game, but that logistics didn't work out.

The NFL says it is looking at ways to hold a Super Bowl celebration in Baltimore while the Ravens open on the road.

 

[Raidersabc123]

Baseball always ruins everything

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Good for the Orioles standing their ground and not moving the date like Goodell tried to bully them to do.

The Orioles had the date first. Should have been the end of this.

The laughable part was Goodell's posturing, when asked why the NFL game couldn't be moved to Wednesday, like they did last year. He blamed a jewish holiday. Thing is Rodge, that same holiday fell on a Sunday last year. And the NFL played a full slate of 13 games that day. Pretty disgusting that he tried to leverage the Orioles via religion.

 

[wr50l]

Put the Ravens on prime time during the World Series instead.

 

[NAHSTE]

Put the Ravens on prime time during the World Series instead.

Not sure the rest of the league will agree with them getting 7 bye weeks to start the season.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Good for the Orioles standing their ground and not moving the date like Goodell tried to bully them to do.

The Orioles had the date first. Should have been the end of this.

The laughable part was Goodell's posturing, when asked why the NFL game couldn't be moved to Wednesday, like they did last year. He blamed a jewish holiday. Thing is Rodge, that same holiday fell on a Sunday last year. And the NFL played a full slate of 13 games that day. Pretty disgusting that he tried to leverage the Orioles via religion.

Agreed. I think the Orioles tried to make it work, and the Ravens were willing to pay the difference in profits. However, the travel rules played a huge part for the Orioles, as it would have taken a vote of every player to consent to playing the game outside of the labor rules. Second, it also would have affected television revenue for the White Sox network.

Pretty sneaky of Goodell to try and use religion though. It's the first game of the year, even a Friday would have worked and people would still watch the game.

 

[MVPete]

Now everyone stays home from the Orioles game and watches both on the TV. :xchamp:

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Agreed. I think the Orioles tried to make it work, and the Ravens were willing to pay the difference in profits. However, the travel rules played a huge part for the Orioles, as it would have taken a vote of every player to consent to playing the game outside of the labor rules. Second, it also would have affected television revenue for the White Sox network.

Pretty sneaky of Goodell to try and use religion though. It's the first game of the year, even a Friday would have worked and people would still watch the game.

Basically, Goodell wanted everybody (Orioles, White Sox, MLB, MLBPA) to bend over backwards for the mighty NFL, and tried to use religion to guilt them.

He wasn't going to put the game on a Friday, because they would have lost a ratings point or two. And now he can't play it on Wednesday, because he'll look like a hypocrite. So basically, it's Goodell's fault the Ravens are hitting the road that night.

 

[Leftwich]

This was all Buck Showalter. He stared right into the soul of the Commish and told him to fuck off. :buck:

 

[Bmore]

Not that it really matters, but if the Ravens start the season off playing a away game. I hope its against Green Bay.

 

[JimLeavy59]

Not that it really matters, but if the Ravens start the season off playing a away game. I hope its against Green Bay.

:stonecold:

 

[Goober]

Not that it really matters, but if the Ravens start the season off playing a away game. I hope its against Green Bay.

:facepalm:

 

[Hasselbeck]

Going to be hilarious when the Orioles-White Sox pulls in like 9000 people this night.

 

[f16harm]

Going to be hilarious when the Orioles-White Sox pulls in like 9000 people this night.

This. Orioles I believe set the record last year for most wins by 1 run in a season. They made the playoffs by 1 game last year. They have sucked balls for numerous seasons on end before that and were even a surprise last year. I'm willing to bet the fervor around Baltimore for the Orioles by fans and players will be gone by July when the team is back to being horrible. The team didn't real add anyone, and with that said, the chance of them winning as many close games as last year is low, thus I'll deduce they go back to being teh suck. I don't follow baseball, because it's too long and boring, but that's my take from what I have heard.

That being said, This has been a topic discussed ad nauseum around here for over a week. I think W2B is going a little too crazy on the Goodell bashing. Where I do think he did try to make a bit of a power play, I don't think it was that unwarranted. In reality, the NFL is a much more prominent sport now then baseball. The Super Bowl winner opening the season at home on a night to themselves has become a tradition. The baseball game is just a normal game, one of 162 others. Not to mention, the Ravens and football in Baltimore are much more popular than the Orioles and Peter Angelos has been viewed as quite the dickhead for a while. I think the real problem here came down to the White Sox, not anything to do with the Orioles. The players on both squads, plus both teams management, had to agree, and although I think the Orioles did I believe the White Sox give no fucks about the Ravens and were the killer in the deal. It would have been very easy to make this work out one way or the other via moving a game, double header, etc. plus Biscotti handing out cash via his own offer.

Last laugh is going to be on MLB come Sept. 5 when both of these teams are out of it, no one gives a fuck, and no ones going to the game because they are amped to watch the start of the NFL season at home in their house whether it be Baltimore or Chicago baseball fans. And all over the broadcast you are going to hear how the Ravens couldn't start at home like tradition because of the MLB not willing to move a game. BTW, now NFL/Baltimore are still thinking of holding the kickoff day concert in Baltimore still. Going to be a betting line on where more fans show up, the concert or the baseball game :smug:

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Is this a big deal?

 

[f16harm]

Is this a big deal?

Do you have any idea how big of a deal it is to the NFL, Ravens, and city of Baltimore's (to include small businesses) piggy banks? It's been estimated that an opening night, NFL kickoff of Super Bowl champions event in Baltimore would be 10x the revenue as a "normal" Sunday game due to the special interest of the game and side attractions that go with the Thurs. opener. Hence why Bisciotti wasn't against paying the Orioles for lost ticket revenue!

 

[DoubleDeuce]

So it's only a big deal to greedy white bastards, gotcha

 

[f16harm]

So it's only a big deal to greedy white bastards, gotcha

"Yes, you are correct"

"As Mayor of Baltimore, I agree, DoubleDouche"

"Thanks for clarifying our true intentions to the general public, sir"

 

[DoubleDeuce]

You think I literally meant only Caucasians?