Ravens president Sashi Brown on stadium renovations, ticket prices and hosting the draft (2024)

ORLANDO, Fla. — When he had his introductory news conference in March 2022, Sashi Brown didn’t make any grand proclamations about his priorities for his first year on the job. More than anything, as the newly hired team president, Brown felt it was essential that he simply observed. He wanted to learn everything about the organization and its people.

Two years later, Brown has a much clearer set of priorities and challenges. In December, Brown and the Baltimore Ravens announced plans for a $430 million renovation project of M&T Bank Stadium. The three-year plan has already started and the first part will be done in time for the 2024 season.

The renovations were the subject of a chunk of the questions Brown got Monday as he spoke with local reporters on the first full day of the NFL annual meetings at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes hotel.

Brown praised owner Steve Bisciotti, general manager Eric DeCosta, head coach John Harbaugh and quarterback Lamar Jackson, and touched on ticket prices, uniform changes and the Ravens’ interest in hosting one of the league’s premier events.

Below are some of his more notable responses to questions from The Athletic, ESPN, The Baltimore Sun, The Baltimore Banner and the Ravens’ official team website. His answers were edited for brevity.

On moving on from last season’s contract dispute with Jackson and getting back to the AFC championship

“It’s been tremendous. First of all, I always want to commend Lamar, Eric, John, Steve. Just watching all sides work through what was a really tough negotiation, circ*mstantially, even before you got to just trying to re-sign a one-time, to-be two-time MVP. But he’s been great in terms of coming back and really buying in. I thought Eric and John and (Ozzie Newsome) and Steve did a great job just sticking through it last year and really putting some pieces around him so that he could feel successful and see the commitment to him as well. He had an awesome season — couldn’t really ask for more. We’re really proud of the entire group. We had a great season.”

On how the team graded out in the recent NFL Players Association report card

“One, we’re in constant communication with the players. John does a really nice job. He has something that’s called the veterans committee, so he’ll take some of the vets and really get feedback. We want to continue to do that. Last year, we made a number of changes and we’ll continue to do that as we move forward. But the feedback is something that we always welcome. Steve is very clear: We want to have the best football operation in the NFL and one of the best in the world. We believe we do. I think this year, the travel made it really tough, honestly. We traveled to London. Many of you guys were with us on a lot of those trips. Christmas in San Francisco at night is not accommodating. None of those are excuses, but we feel proud about where our program is and continues to be and we’ll continue to evolve and work at it.”

On the team’s plan for a ticket-price hike this year, continuing a trend of raising them every other year

“I think you guys know this — we go off and on. We raise ticket prices every other year just to keep up. … We will, to remain competitive, raise our ticket prices. The other thing we’re going to do is re-zone our stadium. Right now, we’ll have a season ticket member that might be sitting 30 rows back in the same section. Traditionally, everyone has paid the same price. We’re going to look at some variety in the zoning. That’s coming out, too.”

On updates with the stadium renovation project

“We’re about a third of the way through our build. Highlights this year will be the Miller Lite Gatehouse which is on the east side facing the railroad tracks, Fed Hill. We’ll have a roof deck on that where you can see almost over to the Inner Harbor. We’re excited about that. That’s an opportunity for every fan to come and experience that. Secondarily, we’ll have the Blackwing suites, which are two of the premium products that we’ll enhance into this opportunity. We’re excited about both of those coming online. And then we’re hard at work continuing to try to finish up designs on the ’25 and ’26 projects, which will bring the plaza online, the retail store. So we’ve got a lot of movement, all really beneficial to driving more value to the game day experience and the fan experience, but also to the season ticket holders who buy and support us every week and who come down to the Bank to see us win games.”

On how the renovation will impact stadium capacity

“So we actually won’t lose much capacity, because even the seats that are being swapped out, we replaced with different products. It’s a very immaterial change in terms of the overall capacity. Some of that’s still being worked out. You guys also know, in ’24, we’ll add the field seats that you’ve seen in different stadiums like Carolina and Philadelphia and San Francisco. So we’ll have about 160, 170 seats that will be on the field, closest to the action, that you can get that we’ll add in ’24.”

On consideration of a ‘smaller’ M&T Bank Stadium

“We started really broad and we looked at, really, all options. What we felt was, demand was strong. … As we looked at that option, it just wasn’t feasible for us to reduce the capacity. We feel good. We’ve got prime-time games, that stadium’s full and it’s loud and it’s intimidating. I think a lot of that was born out in all the media coverage. It was loud and not a place that you wanted to play (as an opponent). So we’re cautious about doing anything that would take noise out of our stadium’s home-field advantage.”

On the looming change with the Orioles ownership and how it affects the relationship with the Ravens

“I should, one, send great respects to the Angelos family and, obviously, the recent news of Peter’s passing. They’ve been brothers-in-Camden with us, across the complex, certainly. They had a tremendous season last year. I think the future is bright there. The new ownership group, we are just in early phases of getting to know them. We’re excited about that. Their reputation precedes them. I know a little bit about them from other interactions with them previously. But I think David (Rubenstein) is going to be a great fit for Baltimore, and we look forward to working closely with him.”

On potential uniform changes

“We have some stuff that’s coming, but if I said too much, my team would shoot me before I got back to the building. But with respect to — the league, first of all, obviously, is the one that sets the parameters in terms of uniforms. We feel like we have really classic jerseys, and I think the team did a great job when we’ve had some minor modifications. So we’re really cautious about making changes, something that we think really works well. And the optionality that you see, particularly in other leagues, with different types of jerseys, color rushes, being tried — we’re exploring some things with some of the alternative jerseys. But as for now, we’re really happy with the way our jerseys stand out.”

On other priorities beyond stadium renovations

“I don’t think anything that’s in the super short term. But we wake up and go to sleep thinking about our fans and how we can support the best game day experience possible and fan experience for them possible. That includes the value proposition of coming out to M&T Bank Stadium. It’s not an insignificant amount of time. People come and spend their Sundays with them. We want them to leave exhilarated. And so that’s our charge from Steve. That’s my charge to the team. And they’ve done a hell of a job this year and will continue to next year. So we’re constantly evolving. The second thing is just how do we support John and Eric and the football team, always. That’s central to us. And then, thirdly, and we’ll have some announcements coming in the next couple months around a lot of our community initiatives. We’ve got some big, heavy lifts in investments on that front that we’re really proud of. I’m not going to get into details because we’re still putting the final touches on that.”

On the organization’s interest in hosting the NFL Draft

“We’ve begun talks with the NFL. The draft has become such a major tentpole event for the league. A lot of cities are interested in it. We think Baltimore’s a great venue for it. There was talk to the league. We’re also talking to the folks that are developing the Inner Harbor around some of the things we might be able to do between the stadium and there. So, TBD and sort of we have to convince the NFL it’s the right venue for them. But we’ll put that pressure on ourselves to try to bring one to Baltimore in the relatively near future. They are already three, four years out. So we’re working on that, and certainly it is within our scope.”

(Top photo: Julio Cortez / Associated Press)