As the Ravens faced off against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, temperatures in Baltimore reached the mid-80s. Up in the visitors’ section of M&T Bank Stadium, season ticket holder Deb Neebe and a friend baked in the sun.
One problem: They couldn’t find any water. Each of the stalls they visited had sold out by the third quarter.
So they left the stadium before the game ended. Neebe made it back to her home in Catonsville in time to watch her team fall 26-23 to the Raiders, but said her experience at the recent home opener reinforced the reasons she’s considering selling her personal seat license. “The older you get, you just don’t want to deal with it.”
Trouble finding water was a top complaint among Ravens fans at Sunday’s game. David Wade of Hanover, Pennsylvania, said he searched around five or six sections before he found water for sale. Moving forward, he’d like to see vendors sell bottles in the stands. “To have water readily available just seems like a no-brainer,” he said.
As a breast cancer survivor who recently underwent chemotherapy, Heather Linington-Noble says she needs to drink water with electrolytes almost constantly when it’s hot. She and her elderly parents decided to leave during halftime after they couldn’t find any stands still selling water, and each of the water fountains they encountered was broken. “That’s a really dangerous situation!” she wrote in a post on X, tagging the team.
As global temperatures rise, water access — or lack thereof — can be a life-or-death issue at crowded outdoor events. In Rio de Janeiro last year, a fan at a Taylor Swift concert died of heat exhaustion, and attendees accused organizers of failing to deliver enough water bottles for the 60,000-person crowd.
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A spokesman for the Ravens who declined to be named denied that M&T Bank Stadium ran out of water at any point during the game, saying only that “there were diminished levels during peak times” and that the stashes of water weren’t replenished as quickly as they had hoped. Though there were some hiccups with a few of the water fountains, he said, all were functioning within 15 minutes after kickoff.
The team, he said, is committed to improving, and noted that they have increased the number of places where fans can buy water from 119 last year to 144, and that 41,000 bottles were sold on game day in the 71,000-person stadium.
The Ravens next play in Baltimore on Sept. 29, when they face off against the Buffalo Bills.
M&T Bank Stadium is undergoing $430 million in upgrades, courtesy of Maryland taxpayers, but Neebe said those improvements have focused too much on premium seats and left ordinary fans like her behind. “We’re not on the club level, but we’re still paying almost $200 a ticket,” she said. “What about us?”
The Ravens spokesman said their attention is on all the fans, not just club- and suite-level attendees. “We want everybody to have a first-class experience.”
Part of the new experience this season is the debut of Chicago-based Levy Restaurants, which took over concessions from Aramark. Levy faced a bumpy introduction at opening day for a different Baltimore team last year: Orioles fans at Camden Yards complained about long lines and unmanned beer carts. At M&T Bank Stadium, they’ve added new stalls like the Ravenous Chicken and Ground & Pound, while getting rid of some of the older options like Attman’s Deli.
The selection didn’t impress David Lapidus, who waited in long lines for what he said were limited offerings of chicken tenders, hot dogs and pizza. Like Neebe, he’s considering getting rid of his season tickets after his experience Sunday. “I’m a better cook,” he said. “I can sit at home and make wings and chili.”
Alex Wolf of Finksburg and his friends tried pit beef, pizza, pretzels and other concessions, and everyone agreed: unimpressive. He noticed stands running out of items earlier than ever, and said he “waited in line longer than I probably ever have in the past to get just a soda.”
Beer drinkers seemed to find more success: Near the stadium entrance, the team unveiled the Miller Lite Gatehouse, a glassed-in bar that won over Karen Guglielmo of Davidsonville, who sat at a table with her husband before kickoff. She was pleased with the space, which replaced a tented area where fans used to buy beer.
“This is much nicer,” she said.