BALTIMORE — Let the players worry about the high-stakes ‘X’s and ‘O’s.
For businesses like Mother’s Federal Hill Grille, home playoff games bring in dollars and cents.
“We have a line for most Ravens' games. We’re definitely… they’re out busiest days of the year,” said Owner Kelly Rather, “For a playoff game, people stay longer, they indulge a little more, they have a lot more fun.”
Along with the hotels and restaurants, sightseeing and souvenirs, the Downtown Partnership says top level sporting events like this weekend’s showdown can expose visitors to the best that Baltimore has to offer.
“The wild card game this weekend is going to bring thousands of folks downtown,” said Erika Murray of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, “We want folks to come down early so that they can take advantage of the great restaurants, the great museums, the great attractions and then go on down to the game.”
Baltimore won the AFC North to secure this home playoff game, but it doesn’t necessarily have to end there.
The Ravens are the AFC’s third seed and if they win and the Buffalo Bills lose to the Denver Broncos they would get a second home playoff game.
And if the wild ride continues until the Ravens can hoist the Lombardi trophy as Super Bowl champs, that would be the pinnacle, which Ravens fans haven’t forgotten.
“They were fantastic. It was great,” recalled Rather, “Everybody, when we won each time, dumps out into the streets and there’s thousands of people celebrating in the streets and it gives you a little more fuzzy feeling.”
