In Lot A, the grills get fired up hours before the Ravens fans do.
George Christas pulls up to the parking lot, a short walk from M&T Bank Stadium, long before kickoff every time the team has a home game. On Sept. 10, the Ravens’ home opener, he was there by 8:30 a.m. — 4-1/2 hours before the match against the Houston Texans was scheduled to start.
Christas is president of Ravens Roost #41, a football fan club based in York, Pennsylvania. The group was founded in 1997, according to its social media, and bills itself as the “first original Ravens Roost.” Christas said he hasn’t missed a Ravens home game in 26 years.
There have been a lot of tailgates along the way, and Christas’ Ravens Roost has been in Lot A since the beginning.
This season, the group has been displaced ever so slightly by a chain link fence and some generators that have temporarily taken the place of a few parking spots. Rather than setting up in the corner of Lot A, Christas and his Ravens Roost have had to move the grill a couple of spots down.
The club’s tailgate could moved even more if Lot A is targeted for development under a future deal to renew the Orioles’ lease on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which expires at the end of the year.
Last month, that Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos had asked for commercial development rights to three state-owned parking areas — lots A, B and C — that sit between Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. Angelos made the request as part of ongoing lease negotiations with the Maryland Stadium Authority, the state-owned ballpark’s landlord.
Whether the parking lots would be included in any deal remains to be seen. One source familiar with the negotiations told The Sun that use of the lots is no longer part of the discussions. Another source said the negotiations are fluid and it was hard to say whether the idea is still under consideration.
If Lots A, B and C are wrapped into a future development deal, they could become home to housing, retail or restaurants rather than tailgates.
An Orioles spokesperson declined to comment. The Maryland Stadium Authority also declined to comment on the status of the parking lots.
“The Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) is extremely pleased with the team’s performance, the fan attendance, the game day excitement at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and upcoming postseason play,” the stadium authority said in a statement. “MSA cannot comment further at this time and appreciates the fans’ understanding of the complexity and need for confidentiality in these matters.”
Christas hopes his Roost will be able to stay in Lot A for years to come, but, he acknowledged, “money talks.” In the meantime, he’ll keep firing up the grill.
Tailgating traditions
Pre-game meals take some planning. Usually, Christas’ group grills two to three meats and “a bunch of sides,” he said. For the Texans game, the tailgate began with 200 raw oysters on the half shell.
But whatever’s on the menu, no tailgate is complete if there aren’t hot dogs, he added. Without them, “you could bring steak and they wouldn’t care.”
A few parking spots away, Mason Auffarth, 23, was manning the grill behind a pickup truck decorated with a miniature football field and pictures of Ravens cheerleaders. On the fire was a combination of shrimp and steak skewers with peppers and mushrooms.
Auffart drove an hour from Hanover, Pennsylvania, to join his father and friends, who have been tailgating Ravens games for 20 years. Auffarth started coming as a kid, and now he’s taking on a leading role: “My dad is usually on the grill,” he said, “but this year I got put on.”
For many, tailgating is an intergenerational tradition. On the other side of Lot A, Jessica Boyle-Tsottles brought her 5-year-old son, Arlo, to his first Ravens game.
“We’re teaching him how to tailgate,” said Boyle-Tsottles of Bel Air.
Her cousin, Blake Boyle, was busy assembling pulled pork and brisket quesadillas on the grill.
“We’ve been in this lot forever — for 10 years,” said Boyle, also of Bel Air. “Before that, my dad was here forever.”
With years of experience comes creativity on the grill. Some tailgate crews even plan their meals around themes.
Each November, Christas’ Ravens Roost hosts a tailgate that doubles as a Thanksgiving feast, with turkey, ham and three different kinds of stuffing.
“Whatever you would have at home, we eat,” he said.
Mark Emory, of Bethesda, often tailors his menu to the culinary specialties of the opposing team’s hometown. The theme for the Texans game, for instance, was “meat.” His group of a dozen tailgaters chowed down on steaks and salmon before heading into the stadium.
When the Ravens play the New Orleans Saints, Emory’s daughter, a graduate of Louisiana State University, will make gumbo and jambalaya.
“We text one another and see what the theme will be,” Emory said. “We don’t do hamburgers and hot dogs.”
Over in Corner Lot B6, the smells of what might be some of the most professional tailgate food were wafting onto the street.
Lamont Elliott, a chef at Little Italy’s La Scala Ristorante Italiano, was working the grill at Vincent Cheatham’s tailgate, a gathering of local restaurateurs and other business people for pre-game networking and eats.
Cheatham, the owner of VC Interiors, started the tailgate 23 years ago as a way to connect with clients and friends. Before the Texans game, the group included Nino Germano, owner of La Scala, and Jim Kinney, a managing partner at The Capital Grille. Former Ravens player Jonathan Ogden had stopped by earlier. At the grill, Elliott danced around as he cooked Italian sausages, hot dogs, grilled peppers and onions, and barbecue wings.
The atmosphere at the tailgate was laid-back, but Cheatham said it takes a lot of work to coordinate. He arrives at 7:30 a.m. to start setting up, and pays upwards of $1,200 for the food. Each tailgate draws between 150 and 200 people.
But at its core, “it’s a bunch of guys getting together and having a good time,” Cheatham said of the tailgate tradition.
“This is friends and family,” Kinney added. “It’s about bringing people together.”
Changing times
Like most things in life, even traditions can change over time.
Christas’ Ravens Roost has about 40 people these days, though the group once counted twice as many members. Over the years, the Roost has dwindled due to death, divorce and people selling their season tickets.
“We used to have a big crowd,” he said, but these are “changing times.”
Christas would be disappointed to lose the group’s tailgating spot. But he’s not quick to criticize the Angelos family, either.
Christas’ father was a labor union leader, and he has respect for the work that John Angelos’ father, Orioles owner Peter Angelos, did as an attorney representing steelworkers and labor organizations.
“There’s a lot of good there,” he said of the Angeloses.
John Angelos has long said he hopes to develop a “live-work-play” district around Camden Yards that would extend the team’s reach beyond the stadium. Entertainment districts like The Battery, surrounding the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park, might serve as a model.
In April, Angelos and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore , which assembles apartments, offices, bars, restaurants, hotels and a concert venue around the ballpark. And in July, after a self-imposed deadline to renew the team’s lease by the end of the All-Star break came and went, Moore and Angelos released a joint statement saying they were making progress on their “vision to expand and revitalize the Camden Yards campus.”
As a restaurant owner, Kinney said he wants to see investment in Baltimore.
“I think before you develop anything, you develop the city,” he said. “Baltimore has this incredible culture. If they’re doing something good for the city, we’ll support it.”
Others were a little more blunt when asked for their thoughts on their tailgating spot being targeted for development.
“I would not be happy about that,” Boyle-Tsottles said of the idea.
“I wouldn’t like that,” Emory agreed.
“Listen, I like the Orioles too,” said Auffarth, “but it’s not the same as a Ravens tailgate.”
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