M&T Bank Stadium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| M&T Bank Stadium | |
|---|---|
  |
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| Location | 1101 Russell Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230 |
| Broke ground | 1996 |
| Opened | 1998 |
| Closed | Open |
| Demolished | N/A |
| Owner | Maryland Stadium Authority |
| Operator | Baltimore Ravens |
| Surface | Sportexe Momentum Turf |
| Construction cost | $220 million |
| Architect | HOK Sport |
| Former names | |
| PSINet Stadium (1999-2002) Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards (1998-1999), (2002-2003) |
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| Tenants | |
| Baltimore Ravens (NFL) (1998-present) Baltimore Bayhawks (MLL) (2002) |
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| Capacity | |
| 70,107 | |
M&T Bank Stadium is the home to the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore's National Football League franchise. Opened in 1998, M&T Bank Stadium is one of the newest and most state-of-the-art stadiums built. M&T Bank Stadium was originally known as Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards, until ISP PSINet acquired the naming rights in 1999, naming it PSINet Stadium. It then reverted back to Ravens Stadium in 2002 when PSINet filed for bankruptcy. In 2003 M&T Bank acquired naming rights to the stadium. Two other companies were in the running to be granted naming rights to the stadium; they were reportedly, Nextel and CarMax. Following the September 2002 death of Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, public sentiment leaned toward renaming the then-sponsorless stadium after the Baltimore icon. However, the Ravens and the Maryland Stadium Authority held firm in their right to negotiate naming rights fees. In the end, a plaza on the stadium's northwest corner was named "Unitas Plaza", complete with a bronze statue of the Hall of Famer (in 2003, Towson University in the Baltimore suburbs named their home stadium, where the NCAA Division I-AA Tigers play, after Unitas).
Located in downtown Baltimore, the stadium is immediately adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. The stadium is served by the Hamburg Street station of the Baltimore Light Rail.
The stadium originally featured a natural grass surface. An artificial surface, Sportexe Momentum Turf, was installed for the 2003 football season.
The stadium served as the home field for the fictional professional football team The Washington Sentinels in the 2000 movie The Replacements with Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman (ironically, it was called Nextel Stadium). The stadium was also supposed to be the location of the football game in the 2002 movie The Sum of All Fears and included footage of the Presidential motorcade going to the building, however the stadium used for the aerial shots is a domed stadium. (Incidentally, the scene with the motorcade shows them driving the wrong way, away from the stadium rather than toward it.) The teams that stood in for NFL players were Canadian Football League teams, the Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes. Coincidentally, the Alouettes are the team that played in Baltimore prior to the arrival of the Baltimore Ravens. At that time they were called the Baltimore Stallions.
On October 28, 2006, the stadium held a contest between Notre Dame and Navy in which Notre Dame won 38-14 and in 2007 the stadium will hold the Army-Navy game.
The stadium also serves as an alternate venue for Johns Hopkins University's popular and dominant men's lacrosse team, and was the site of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in 2003 and 2004. It will again host the lacrosse finals in 2007. Major League Lacrosse's Baltimore Bayhawks used the stadium as their home during the 2002 season.
The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association holds the four state football championships for Maryland's public high schools at M&T Bank Stadium. Two very important Baltimore high school rivalry games are also held at the stadium every November. Baltimore City College plays Baltimore Polytechnic Institute every November, in one of the oldest high school football rivalries in the United States. Every Thanksgiving, Loyola Blakefield and Calvert Hall College also square off in what has now been called for many years as the Turkey Bowl. Fans for both games reach up to 13,000 people. Both play on separate days following an altercation during the 80's, when the games were played back-to-back at Memorial Stadium.
| Preceded by Memorial Stadium 1996–1997 |
Home of the Baltimore Ravens 1998–present |
Succeeded by current |
