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 Located in downtown Baltimore, M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards are premier stadiums in in the National Football League and Major League Baseball. When the Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis after the 1984 season local leaders in Baltimore began talking about building a new football stadium to lure a team back to Baltimore. However, that took more than a decade to happen. In the mid 1990s, owner of the Cleveland Browns, Art Modell wanted a new stadium for his team to replace the colossal and deteriorating Cleveland Municipal Stadium. After failing to reach an agreement to build a new stadium in Cleveland, Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore after the 1995 season where local officials promised to build a new state of the art football facility. Officials in Baltimore decided to build a new stadium next to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles (MLB). While the stadium was constructed, the Baltimore Ravens played at Memorial Stadium for two years, that was the home of the Baltimore Colts prior to moving to Indianapolis. PSINet Inc., originally purchased the naming rights to the stadium, thus getting the name PSINet Stadium. However, after the 2001 season, the PSINet name was dropped and the stadium was renamed Ravens Stadium. In May 2003, M&T Bank purchased the naming rights for $5 million annually over 15 years.
The Ravens inaugural first game at their
stadium was on September 6, 1998. Over 69,000 purple and silver
seats are located throughout the stadium. M&T Bank Stadium
consists of three main tiers of seats.
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The
lower level of seats enclose the entire field. The club level of
seats circle the field except beyond the end zones, where two
massive video/scoreboards are located. The upper deck extends
around the entire field, but is broken into four sections,
allowing fans views of the surrounding Baltimore area. The
exterior of the stadium is built in correspondence with its
neighbor, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The facade consists of over
one million bricks, several thousand pieces of bluff colored
architecture precast and prominent archways. M&T Bank Stadium
includes over 100 luxury suites in two levels, 8,196 club seats,
the Budweiser Backyard Bash, where fans can mingle and watch the
pre and post game shows on big screen TVs, and a Ravens Team
Store. 
