M&T BANK STADIUM
STADIUM DUDE’S NFL STADIUM RANK: #14
STADIUM INFORMATION
- Location: Baltimore, MD
- Opened: 1998
- Capacity: 71,008
- Weather: Comfortable (ranked 6th out of 20 outdoor venues)
- Games attended: 1
- Last visited: 2019
STADIUM REVIEW
This place does a lot of things well.
Located right beside Camden Yards on the SW outskirts of downtown Baltimore, the stadium is easy to access by car or public transit. Tailgating in the nearby parking lots is rowdy. The real pre-game star is the Ravenswalk area, an outdoor pop-up area that stretches down from the Orioles’ ballpark toward the football stadium offering entertainment, well-priced bars, promos, giveaways and merchandise shops. The Ravens Marching Band, one of only two such bands in pro football, will march through here pre-game.
Concessions are affordable with the Ravens adopting the Falcons’ “fan-first” pricing model. It lets you leave with a good feeling about the place; paying less than $5 for stadium staples, and less than $10 for premium 16-oz beer is A-OK by me. If you wanted to spend a little more, there were many good regional options as well, including a lot of stuff with Old Bay seasoning.
The seats and signage are all in Ravens purple. The front entrance is guarded by statues of Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis, with many rubbing Unitas’ shoe for good luck before the game. The baseball tradition of yelling of “O” during the anthem is also used here. The videoboards are nice and large. And the crowd knows its football and gives the Ravens a genuine home field advantage.
It doesn’t have some of the Wow factors of the stadiums ahead of it, but the Ravens’ facility gets consistently refreshed to feel up-to-date and eclipses many of the similar stadiums built around the same time. It’s a well-run operation in Charm City.
