Tim Malarkey and Stefanie Moscati splurged last year. The married couple have long been Orioles fans, but ahead of what they felt could be a landmark season in which Baltimore’s Major League Baseball organization could push for a World Series, they bought a pair of season tickets in Section 34 behind home plate.
They’re sweet seats to watch baseball and, of course, they aren’t cheap.
“We both said to each other, ‘Screw it, let’s splurge, let’s budget it tight elsewhere to make room, because we want to be going to The Yard 29-plus times this year, sitting behind home plate the year the Orioles make a run,” Malarkey said.
Now, those two seats will be even more expensive.
The Orioles redid their pricing tiers across Camden Yards and within their several Birdland Membership packages, leading to a 2025 increase for two-thirds of the ticket holders and a decrease in price for one-third of Birdland Members, the Orioles said.
For Malarkey and Moscati, who have a supreme view at Camden Yards, that means they’ll pay $800 more in 2025 than 2024. They renewed, opting to budget even more tightly rather than moving sections or vacating their tickets.
“At what point are you now charging so much that the average person can’t go?” Moscati said. “We already all know Maryland is extremely expensive to live, and so now, doing these changes, are you now pricing us out? Is that the goal? That’s my concern.”
That concern has been echoed by many in the fan base, particularly those who have long been supporters. They showed up during the lowest of lows, when the Orioles lost 100-plus games on the regular, and they want to enjoy the highs of 2024 and beyond, when the competitive window appears wide open.
On top of the rise in ticket prices for some fans, a popular perk of being a Birdland Member is being taken away. No longer will members receive a 25% or 30% discount on alcoholic beverages. And, for flex plan members, the discounts on concessions and merchandise have been dropped from 25% this year to a low of 10% for “Rookie” members (all while the plan rises from $600 to $790).
According to the Orioles, the decision to restructure the ticket pricing came after a lengthy review of analytics. They determined where the most desired seats were at Camden Yards — and, in most cases, the most desirable seats were close to home plate and close to the field.
With information from primary and secondary market sales, the Orioles then reclassified their ticket pricing for 2025 across the stadium. In all, the Orioles said, the average increase per seat per game is a little over $1. It leads to a rise in price of 8.9%, the club said, because of decreases in certain areas and increases in others.
The team also said it is adjusting the pricing and discounts for flex plans because they proved popular and created an overwhelming demand for early access to opening day and playoff tickets, which is also promised to fans with reserved plans committing to buy tickets to a predetermined amount of games.
Read More: The Orioles are asking fans to spend more at Camden Yards. When will they do the same?
The flex plan allows fans to put money toward a debit account and buy discounted tickets whenever they want as the season progresses.
The Orioles’ “Pro Level” flex membership, for instance, cost fans $1,200 in 2024 and included 25% off food, beverages and merchandise. In 2025, the “Pro” membership rises to $1,540. The concession and merchandise discount drops to 15%. And, like all other plans, beer isn’t included.
Now the Orioles hope some of those fans will upgrade to a reserved plan or opt for single-game tickets. Thirteen-game reserved plans start at $477 for two seats.
“It’s just disappointing,” said Casey Newman, a “Rookie” flex member who lives in Ohio. “I don’t know a better word for it. I guess my question is to them, or whoever’s idea it was, is: Would you pay more for less benefits? Just looking at it, it’s almost insulting. Those of us who have the season tickets or have stuck by the team for a while, we’ve been through all of this. We’re finally at a place where maybe we can enjoy the postseason or maybe enjoy things more, and you take the benefits away. So, what’s the point, then?”
Brian Dinan, a fan from New York who has commuted to Camden Yards with a 13-game plan since 2018, said his ticket plan will increase about $65 to $70 next season. He wasn’t surprised by the change in ticket price but pointed out that the absence of a discount on alcoholic beverages could amount to spending hundreds more by the end of the season.
Dinan wrote an email to his ticket representative forewarning them about the potential detriment from the changes.
“Baltimore is a blue-collar city, and even though I wasn’t born there, I don’t live there, I have a very big attachment to the city because I’ve been going there for so many years, and I know so many people and I know so many local businesses and business owners,” Dinan said. “It’s a blue-collar city. If you’re alienating your blue-collar people to cater to suites and all this, you know what, you’re not in this for the right business.”
According to the Orioles, two-thirds of MLB clubs don’t offer discounts on beer.
The team plans to update Camden Yards in the near future, using the $600 million taxpayer-financed bonds made available to it by the Maryland Stadium Authority.
In a survey sent to Birdland Members to gauge interest in various stadium improvements, the expansion of premium seating areas and clubs featured heavily. But so, too, did more general-use sections, such as “The Nest,” a concept that was described as a “social patio” with views of the field.
One change coming in 2025 is the alteration of the Home Plate Club, a premium dining experience. Next year, Section 228 will become exclusively for members of the Home Plate Club. That means existing season plan members who sit in that section must either move — they’ve been offered sections 226 or 230 — or join the Home Plate Club.
Jeramy Utara, a “Diamond” member who recently surpassed 140 straight games at Camden Yards, said the rollout of that change hasn’t been communicated as well as he’d hoped. He plans to leave Section 228 rather than joining the Home Plate Club (which would just about double his ticket costs), but he hasn’t finalized the move.
“What has been offered to me — and I wouldn’t say anything has really been offered — is 230, but with absolutely no details,” Utara said. “Where the seats would be, what the cost would be. I think part of that is also because I did say, ‘Hey, I might move somewhere else,’ so I’m probably not on the top of the list of people they have to get answers to right away.”
There will be a mix of premium- and general-use areas once Camden Yards, a stadium that opened in 1992, is redeveloped. That’s to be expected, bringing the stadium more in line with industry standards — especially as Baltimore aims to attract an All-Star Game.
“You’ve got the cash lying around,” said Ron Burr, an Orioles fan with an “Orange” membership that covers 13 games a season, referring to the bond funding set aside for stadium renovations. “You don’t have to pay to get a new scoreboard. You don’t have to have a bake sale to fix the turf. Throw the fans a bone.”
The disappointment some fans felt when they realized the flex plans would have a decreased discount is leading to difficult decisions.
“I don’t think the hike is unexpected, but they are probably losing a bit of a relationship with me,” said Kevin Martin, an Orioles fan since 1969 from Silver Spring who held a “Rookie” flex plan this year. “Especially on the food and beverage discount. I get a 25% discount, and really that was one of the best perks. But the hikes and cutting that down to a 10% discount means I probably won’t renew.”
Next year, fans who don’t have plans in the two highest tiers, “Diamond” and “Black,” will have to use Birdland Rewards points to access the Birdland Members Clubhouse. Currently, the Birdland Rewards points can be used to access Q&A sessions with team legends, buy additional tickets or secure an exclusive giveaway.
The Clubhouse, which is located on the club level, offers free water, soda and popcorn. Burr said, on hot days, the ability to step into the air conditioning for a few innings is a plus. But to require points to access what had been complimentary “feels punitive to me,” Burr said.
Newman and Dinan added that it appears the complimentary access to MLB.tv is being removed for Birdland Members, and as out-of-market fans who rely on the service to watch most games, that will be another expenditure.
Plus, the murky availability of late-round postseason presale access caused a stir among fans. For “Diamond” and “Black” members, World Series tickets are guaranteed for 2025.
But, for lower tiers of membership, the presale guarantee is through the American League Championship Series for the “Orange,” “Gold Glove” and “Veteran” levels. For “Pro” and “Rookie” flex plan members, the presale guarantee covers the wild-card round and American League Division Series.
The deeper a team goes in the postseason, the more tickets MLB requests at a home ballpark for its own use, limiting the number the Orioles can sell. With the sharp increase in Birdland Members in recent years, the Orioles said they aren’t able to guarantee presale access; it’s a matter of supply and demand.
The idea of potentially missing a World Series game is hard to accept.
“I started my plan on a bad year, in 2018, and I renewed it and renewed it and renewed it, because I have a great fondness for this organization, the city of Baltimore, and I have faith in what we’re doing here,” Dinan said. “I think there’s a very distinct possibility of appearing in, or potentially winning, a World Series within the next handful of years. That’s kind of a throat punch to somebody like myself who’s had tickets through a 100-loss season and several other bad years and has spent a lot of money for that, and we make it to the World Series in, let’s say 2026 or something like that, and: ‘I’m sorry, Brian, you don’t have access to buy World Series tickets.’ That’s kind of a slap in the face to some of us.”
A salve for many of these changes, however, is whatever happens on the diamond each night. Winning helps, and the Orioles have won frequently over the last few seasons.
Signing extensions to keep this group of players around would also go a long way. Moscati and Malarkey said there’s excitement that the Orioles are playing well with one of the best records in baseball.
“But we definitely want to see that this money is going where it should be going,” Moscati said, “because other than that, it doesn’t make sense to have these price increases if they’re not going to spend the money efficiently.”
It’s a sentiment that’s widely agreed upon.
“If I see that we signed Corbin Burnes, it’s an easier pill for me to swallow,” Dinan said. “I’ll be like, ‘All right, I get to see Corbin Burnes every now and then. I’ll pay an extra $3 for a beer.’”
Baltimore Banner columnist Kyle Goon contributed to the reporting of this story.
