Baltimore Orioles Top Executive Says Booking Concerts Is a Higher Priority Than the Team

Baltimore Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos doesn’t appear to care much about the baseball team he ostensibly runs.

That’s the most obvious explanation for his recent comments on the priorities he has when running the Baltimore Orioles baseball club.

Quite literally, Angelos said that his priorities, in order, placed the team last.

His first concern is bringing concerts to Camden Yards, then the relationship with the city, and finally, the team itself.

Asked about the Orioles’ low payroll, John Angelos said the 2022 team “overachieved,” adding it’s “not my job to predict payroll” and listing his priorities, in order, as bringing concerts to Camden Yards, the partnership with the city, then the team. https://t.co/8aS1ViqnAH

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) February 20, 2023

Orioles fans must be thrilled to hear that!

Beyond the bewildering list, he also said it isn’t his job to predict payroll and that the team “overachieved” last season. The Orioles won 83 games in 2022, which after years of failure, was apparently not the most desirable outcome for the Chairman and CEO.

It’s almost impossible for there to be a starker contrast between two top executives than the Orioles and San Diego Padres. San Diego’s Peter Seidler recently restated that his first commitment is to winning.

READ: SAN DIEGO PADRES OWNER DOESN’T CARE ABOUT MONEY, ‘WE’RE HERE TO WIN A TITLE’

I’m sure Padres fans are furious that Petco Park didn’t host more concerts instead of signing Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and trading for Juan Soto.

Orioles Priorities

To be fair to Angelos, he may be trying to imply that his specific job is about revenue and not team performance.

But it’s hard to imagine expressing those sentiments more poorly than this. And of course, the most obvious way to generate revenue as a baseball team is to, you know, make the baseball team better.

If Angelos wanted to run a concert promoting business, it seems like it wouldn’t be hard for him to get a job at one of those companies.

His sentiments really do highlight a substantial problem with modern baseball. Many ownership groups and top executives don’t seem to care much about running a baseball team. They want to run multifaceted businesses with baseball teams as one part of the organization.

That might make sense to them, but for fans, it’s a tremendous disservice. If profit is the only motive, there are many other businesses to buy.

But the Orioles have a lengthy history and a dedicated fan base who deserve better than third billing. They also have an exciting core group of young players that could be made even more competitive with further investment.

Angelos though, implied that the team “overachieving” set payroll expectations too high.

So for Orioles fans, they’ll probably have to be content playing third fiddle to Bruce Springsteen shows. Oh, and hope that they don’t inconvenience their top executives by winning too many games.