M&T Bank Stadium will play host in 2014 and 2016 to the Army-Navy football game, a rivalry long associated with Philadelphia that is expected to generate as much as $22 million per game for the Baltimore-area economy.
The annual, tradition-rich game will also come for the first time in 2011 to FedEx Field in Landover, home of the Washington Redskins. It was last played in Baltimore in 2007.
Baltimore, which has been host four times since the series began in 1890, had particularly sought the 2014 game, which will coincide with the bicentennial celebration of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The song was written as a poem by Francis Scott Key after watching British forces bombard Fort McHenry.
The game is attended by service members from both academies and their alumni and is a favorite of many other fans for its history and such traditions as the march into the stadium and the singing of the alma maters.
"The Army-Navy game is a tremendous opportunity for Baltimore," said Tom Noonan, president and CEO of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. "More than 70,000 people fill the stadium for the event, and they spend money in our restaurants and stay in our hotels."
The new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., was a finalist but was not given a game.
A committee of representatives from the two academies awarded eight games. Philadelphia, already set to host the 2009 contest at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 12, got five. Philadelphia, the game's traditional home, played host every year from 1945 to 1982 and has been the site of 81 of the 109 contests.
"In a perfect world, we would love to be hosting the game every year," said Larry Needle, executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress. "We realize the academies like to move it around to different markets on occasion, and we're comfortable with that."
One of Philadelphia's arguments for keeping the game was that the site is geographically neutral. Baltimore is about 30 miles from the Naval Academy and 240 miles from West Point.
"I'm sure the folks from West Point consider the games in Baltimore - and now Washington - to be more Navy home games than Army home games," Needle said.
Army athletic director Kevin Anderson could not be reached for comment. He said in a prepared statement that the academies "are excited about bringing the game back to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and for the first time holding the game in our nation's capital."
