Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles Ban Smoking at Games
Going into effect on March 4th, the Camden Yards Sports Complex will enforce a complete smoking ban, at Camden Yard, the home of the Baltimore Orioles, and M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens.
The ban includes “the burning of a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, or any other matter or substance that contains tobacco” inside the complex and within 25 feet of the entrances. The ban will help decrease smoke entering any window that can be opened.
A spokesperson for the Ravens has announced they will make accommodations for any game or event held at M&T Bank. The Orioles will also introduce a similar policy before Opening Day.
“We’ve had complaints over time,” Stadium authority executive director Michael Frenz said. “So as we looked into the issue, we saw that we were a little bit permissive.”
This ban will make baseball and football games into a more family-friendly environment. It also decreases the amount of secondhand smoke inhaled for non-smokers, which has tested deadlier than firsthand smoke.
While many are happy about it, many fans are upset.
Coleen Deems is one of the fans that has inspired the new ban. After every Ravens home game, Deems sat down and wrote the team urging them to ban smoking, something she said had become a problem at the stadium even if people weren’t doing at their seats.
“This simplifies things and hopefully will make it clear cut when someone is in violation,” said Deems, who said she resisted subjecting others to second-hand smoke during her 27 years as a smoker. “You have to accommodate the people who don’t smoke, and there’s only one way to do that: don’t allow smoking. At all.”
While fans might be upset; if anyone is caught smoking within the stadium by an usher they will be asked to leave the game.