New Orioles owner David Rubenstein says he won’t opt out of stadium lease before 30 years

New Orioles owner David Rubenstein says he won’t exercise an option to end the team’s stadium lease after 15 years and plans instead to negotiate a development rights deal with the state and commit the club to Baltimore for the full 30 years.

“The Orioles will be there as long as there’s Major League Baseball,” Rubenstein, co-founder of the Washington-based Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun about his goals and approach as the baseball team’s first new owner since 1993. “It would be my complete intention to honor the 30 years.”

MLB on Wednesday formally approved the purchase of the team by Rubenstein and his partnership group in a deal valuing the franchise and assets at $1.725 billion.

Rubenstein scheduled a celebratory dinner Wednesday night with family and friends and planned to attend Thursday’s season-opening game at Camden Yards. He said he would largely eschew the owner’s box in favor of sitting with fans in the stands.

Under the stadium agreement approved by the state in December, the Orioles can opt out after 15 years if no separate ground lease is signed granting the club rights to redevelop the B&O Warehouse and an area immediately surrounding Camden Yards.

Those development plans were a priority of John Angelos — a son of the late former owner Peter Angelos — who worked with Gov. Wes Moore’s administration last year on a strategy to revitalize the stadium area to attract people even on non-game days.

Since the plans were put in place months before Rubenstein, 74, became owner, it was uncertain whether he was interested in developing the property or immediately committing, at least verbally, to the full 30 years.

The Baltimore-raised financier, author and philanthropist answered “yes” to both questions during the interview Sunday in which he also promised not to meddle in baseball affairs that are the responsibility of general manager Mike Elias. Rubenstein agreed to be interviewed on condition that his remarks not be published until MLB approved the sale so that he would not appear to get ahead of the process.

“I don’t have a history of making decisions about baseball players, and I think it would be presumptuous of me to second-guess Mike,” Rubenstein said. “So it would be foolhardy for me to say, ‘Well, here’s what I think. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.’ That wouldn’t be the case.”

But Rubenstein, who played Little League Baseball in Baltimore, is a longtime fan of the sport and said he will attend as many games as he can.

Asked what professional sports owners he admires, he said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has “done a wonderful job winning all the Super Bowls that he’s won and being very, I’d say, fan-friendly.”

Rubenstein demonstrated his love of baseball by discussing the sport — and swinging an imaginary bat — in a 2023 PBS “Iconic America” program about Boston’s Fenway Park that he narrated and helped produce.

During the show, the white-haired Rubenstein — wearing khakis, a blue shirt and blazer — strides to home plate and assumes his batting stance. Then he swings a nonexistent bat and declares that, in his mind’s eye, the ball “would go all the way over the Green Monster.”

Peter Angelos, who died Saturday at 94 after a long illness, was celebrated for his devotion to Baltimore but criticized by fans and media members for micromanaging the club. His son John, who was the club’s chairman and CEO, said he gave Elias, hired in 2018, the autonomy needed to rebuild the club, which has a young core and won 101 games to capture the American League East title last season.

“Mike has done a wonderful job,” said Rubenstein, who attended Baltimore City College and now lives in Montgomery County.

He said Sunday that he didn’t know whether the team has set aside an office for him at the warehouse, where the team is based.

In fact, the club does maintain office space for the owner on the red-brick building’s third floor that would be available to Rubenstein. But Peter Angelos almost never used it, preferring to work out of his law offices.

The iconic warehouse is rented out by the Maryland Stadium Authority, and its other tenants include law, advertising and medical offices. The authority has studied whether it could generate more revenue if it added, for example, retail, apartment or other commercial uses.

The lease reflects John Angelos’ 2023 wish to develop the property. It stipulates that the team can shorten the lease to 15 years if no ground lease has been signed and approved by various state entities by the end of 2027. Baltimoreans have long worried about losing the team to another city, as Baltimore did when the NFL’s Colts moved to Indianapolis 40 years ago.

But Rubenstein said in the interview that he plans to forgo the 15-year option.

“There will be a ground lease in place. I’m 100% certain,” he said.

Rubenstein said he met recently with Moore in Annapolis and that “I have great confidence in the governor, who I’ve known a long time. We’re going to move with dispatch to resolve the ground lease issue.”

Moore was unavailable to comment Wednesday as he dealt with the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse early Tuesday.

In March 2023, Moore and John Angelos toured the stadium-anchored commercial and real estate complex in Atlanta, where the Braves play, to get ideas about revitalizing the Camden Yards area.

“In a number of cities around the country with respect to baseball, basketball and football, stadiums had development done around them that really enhanced the area and made them more than places people go only to watch the game,” Rubenstein said. “And we would anticipate doing the same thing with Camden Yards.”