The Baltimore Business Journal held the Business of Sports 2025 Tuesday at M&T Bank Stadium, giving business leaders from around the area a chance to learn more about the industry, share ideas, and network.
Ravens President Sashi Brown was joined on a panel by Orioles President of Business Operations Catie Griggs.
Here are some of Brown's answers:
What has been the biggest area of growth?
"I think every business in this day and age, it's the ability to take all the technologies that we have, all the capabilities we have, and really understand our customers much better than we did a generation ago for businesses. We spend a lot of time gathering better, deeper feedback, and figuring out ways and processes that we listen better to our customers. And that's giving us great guidance in terms of on-site renovations, ticketing offerings and products, etc. So, I think that's always a value set that we really embrace, which is making sure that we understand and listen to our customers, and that will continue to be a hallmark and core to what we do."
Talk about what you've done at your stadiums.
"We both benefited from public investment. I think there was a lot of foresight on the part of the Maryland Stadium Authority, who's both our great partner here and runs this complex with us. They came to us a little bit over five years ago and started talking about how do we ensure the future of year two franchises here in the city. And the state put together a package that allowed each of us to invest up to a cap of $600 million in each facility. We extended our leases respectively. We have really master planned a host of hospitality areas inside and outside the stadium. It's hard to modernize a stadium that was built 30 years ago. But we had one kitchen; we now have four. We had one real suite product; we now have two new suite products for a total of three, and just new hospitality and activation opportunities for fans to engage. But we also invested in security and infrastructure, important things, technology, to modernize the stadium, keep it fresh over the years. The Ravens [did that] on their own and thank our ownership group. Steve [Bisciotti] has invested now over $300 million of the Ravens' money on top of [those] initial construction costs in these renovations to make sure that we keep the fan experience and the stadium experience fresh. And that's just a commitment to making sure we do right by our fans, which we'll continue to do."
What's the biggest area of opportunity in this Baltimore marketplace for you all?
"[M&T Bank Head of Community Markets] Auggie [Chiasera] and I co-chaired a marketing study here with the great Baltimore community. No. 1, the perception of Baltimore outside Baltimore is actually a lot stronger than we think. And so, if you think about T. Rowe Price and M&T Bank and Under Armour, the Orioles and certainly the Ravens being here, I think to some degree it's about really just embracing where we are. We've got a billion-dollar investment that's going back into the Harbor that's going to come online over the next half a decade. And we've just put over a billion dollars into the two facilities here and ensured our long-term future downtown. So, there'll be catalytic development that always sits on top of what's actually a strong base. So, we're really proud of Baltimore, but not too proud to make sure that we go out there and make sure people know our story."
If you were going to double down on any position within your organization, what would it be?
"Guest experience. I think the more that we can do. We've made a massive investment. It's probably more reflection on our team. We've opened up five or six new spaces, each of which is unique. And the ability to get to know our fans that are going to be in those spaces on a weekly and per event basis has allowed us, I think, to deliver just much greater hospitality experiences. So that's been great to us. It's no more see you at the door, pat you down, and go on your way. We really want to bring people in and engage with them and get to know them to help them come back, but to also just enjoy the day thoroughly."
