Camden Yards Naming Rights Are For Sale, and I Don't Really Care About It

Of all the issues facing Baltimore and the Orioles, the name is not a priority

Apparently, the Orioles are shopping the naming rights for Camden Yards;

The Orioles have quietly been taking Camden Yards naming rights to market this year, according to sources. The nameplate being sold would apply to the field only (i.e. XYZ Field at Camden Yards). This is a proposition which has worked before in the NFL (the Broncos' Empower Field at Mile High or the Chiefs' GEHA Field at Arrowhead). It is not a designation that has been in the baseball ranks, although the Dodgers have been attempting to sell that proposition on and off for at least six years, with no success

Sources said a decade-long deal comes with an asking price of $6-8M annually, depending on various levels of on-site and electronic media inventory baked into any deal.

I gotta tell you…..I can’t really be bothered to care about this.

Ever since the ballpark opened in 1992, it has had a clunky name. Oriole Park at Camden Yards has never really rolled off the tongue. It got its name due to a compromise:

The team’s owner at the time, Eli Jacobs, was pushing to name the ballpark Oriole Park, an homage to stadiums from prior Baltimore Orioles baseball teams, dating back to the 1880s. Ultimately, there were five stadiums holding the name Oriole Park prior to the arrival of the Major League Baltimore Orioles in 1954.

The other name being advocated for was Camden Yards by Maryland’s Governor, William Donald Schaefer. Why Camden Yards? Well, there used to be a large rail yard on the site called Camden Yards, of which the B&O Warehouse used to be a part of. Thankfully that was saved and incorporated into the ballparks design.

Schaefer was ultimately right. Despite the clunky name and the use of some (myself included) of the OPACY acronym, few people actually called it by its full name. Fewer people call it Oriole Park. Most people call it Camden Yards.

That will not change if the Orioles sell the naming rights. Not just because the name will be This Space For Rent Field at Camden Yards. But because people have always called it Camden Yards.

The name names in Denver or Kansas City have never changed what they call their stadiums. It has always been Mile High. It has always been Arrowhead. And it will always be Camden Yards.

As long as the team plays there, what management calls it is the least of my concerns.