At Thursday’s preseason Ravens game against Atlanta, I was struck by the number of fans not only showing up, but tailgating and cheering like it was their job. After all, it was a game that didn’t count and — being the last game before the regular season starts — one that was unlikely to feature many starters.

I’ve been to a preseason Redskins game and the atmosphere wasn’t nearly as energetic. That stadium seemed to mostly be filled with people that couldn’t sell off their season ticket seats. And that game was even on a weekend, versus a weeknight.

I asked several fans what they thought made Ravens fans so die hard and many used the opportunity to take shots at ‘Skins fans, who some said were more of the “suit and tie” variety than the stuff real football fans are made of.

Friday, however, I was alerted to an article on ESPN.com that ranked all 32 NFL teams’ fans. If you’re a Ravens fan, the results aren’t pretty. Taking into account stadium and tailgating atmosphere, notoriety of fans, how they take a loss, loyalty, and home fans’ creativity, ESPN had Redskins fans ranked No. 6 and Ravens fans ranked 17th (right behind the Jets, Saints and Colts). Steelers fans were ranked No. 1.

Ouch. I can think of a few people I spoke to last night that would strongly disagree.

Check it out and let us know what you think. The article has Steelers, Packers and Browns fans ranked 1, 2, 3. Did the ESPN bloggers totally miss the boat? What didn’t they get about Baltimore?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer

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Our family cat, a Maine Coon who’s a svelte 18 pounds and 15 years old, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism this week. He’d grown a benign tumor and lost three pounds in just three months by the time we brought him to the vet. We’re hoping his condition can be controlled through medication, but our veterinarian suggested radioactive iodine treatment if it doesn’t – a big procedure that comes with a big price tag ($1,400).

We’re not alone in having an awkward debate about the price of our pet’s life. Neal Templin at the Wall Street Journal wrote about his beagle’s astronomical medical bills earlier this month, and devoted a second column to the subject after getting an overwhelming number of responses to the first.

So how much is a pet’s life worth?

We know from TDR Reporter Anne Riley’s story from Aug. 10 that when the economy’s shaky, pet owners are less likely to give their vet the green light for an expensive procedure.

Anne wrote:

According to Dr. Kim Hammond, owner of Falls Road Animal Hospital …. given the economic conditions, pet owners are thinking harder about whether to give veterinarians the go-ahead for expensive surgeries.

“When your animal is really, really sick, you’re going to make a judgment call about whether to treat, when in the past, you didn’t make a judgment call — you just treated it,” he said. “When we had more expendable dollars, we might take the chance.”

Jess Townsend, who supervises admissions at the Maryland SPCA, said the organization has seen an uptick in euthanasia requests from pet owners who cannot afford the necessary vet care their pets require. “With the larger medical problems, people do bring them in to put them to sleep,” Townsend said.

But while those owners are struggling, others are treating their pets with human-grade care, such as acupuncture.

Where would you draw the line? $500? $1,000? …more?

Does it matter if your animal is a rescue (as one man told WSJ, “I paid $110 for our family cocker spaniel from a rescue organization six years ago, and I will pay no more than $110 to keep her alive”) or a purebred?

Would the state of the economy impact your decision at all?

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor 

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Several of our fellow Dolan Media publications have joined together to form DMC@theConventions, a Web site chronicling the political conventions.  It’s a good place to go if you’re interested in seeing what’s been going on but — like me — reluctant to subject yourself to actually watching the whole thing on television.

Obviously most of the current coverage is on the Democrats in Denver. However, there’s also a section previewing the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul and the site will feature more coverage of that shindig when the time comes.

Much appreciation to the Arizona Capitol Times, Colorado Springs Business Journal, Politics in Minnesota and the St. Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report for all their great reporting.

Also on the topic of Dolan Media/political coverage is “Politics and Profits,” a blog examining business issues in the 2008 election. It’s a complementary site to DMC@theConventions, but the current plan is to keep it updated up to the election. Check it out when you have the time.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist

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That’s it — don’t move. Don’t even think about going anywhere, it’s just not worth it. The folks at AAA Mid-Atlantic have been busy little bees this week, first predicting massive delays on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge this weekend due to emergency repair work and now are warning travelers of an expected increase in gas prices in response to Tropical Storm Gustav.

“Although the market is reacting to storm updates, there is still some uncertainty about the path of the storm,” said spokeswoman Ragina C. Averella in AAA’s press release, noting that gas prices across Maryland have dropped an average of 34 cents in the last month.

But the three G’s — Gustav, the Gulf and gas — are already having an impact on crude oil prices, to the chagrin of motorists, travelers and some oil investors, according to the release. Crude oil futures jumped to $116.26 — up $1.115 per a barrel — Tuesday and continued rising, closing at $118 Wednesday.

“Investors fear Gustav could hit U.S. waters by Sunday and could morph into a monster storm by early next week, impacting about 85 percent of the energy infrastructure on the Gulf Coast,” the press release states.

First the Bay Bridge is going to be (and probably already is) a parking lot on one of the biggest travel weekends of the year and now we’ve got  another predicted gas price hike on top of it? I didn’t have any travel plans for the Labor Day weekend but if I did I’d likely consider breaking them.

Is anyone bagging their original plans for the holiday and staying home this year?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer    

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The Orioles put out a press release this week announcing a “Ravens Rally” before the team’s game this Saturday against the Oakland A’s at Oriole Park. Complete with cheerleaders, mascots and the marching band, fans can “help the Orioles wish their neighbors good luck this season,” says the Orioles press release.

Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass will also throw the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game and the first 15,000 fans age 15 and older will get a free tee-shirt with the Oriole Bird carrying a football and wearing a Ravens jersey.

Where did all the love come from? In the Ravens’ 12-year history here, the Orioles have never welcomed their neighbors to the south as warmly as this — not even the season after the Ravens won the Super Bowl.

Did somebody tell O’s owner Peter Angelos to start playing nice in the sandbox?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer 

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An interesting piece of campaigning from Maryland’s own MedImmune. The Gaithersburg-based biotech has started a new Web site to push the importance of taking the flu vaccine. More specifically, it’s pushing the importance of taking its version of the vaccine, which is delivered with a nasal spray instead of through a needle.

The “interesting” part is that the Web site is set up like a campaign Web site — campaign buttons, a call to cast your “fluvote” and a string of red, white and blue banners.

I suppose it’s a timely piece of advertising, and a good way for the company to get its message out. Still, just thinking about campaigning and politics gives me a little eye twitch — the same one I get whenever I see a political ad on television.

Thanks to the WSJ blog for seeing it first.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist

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Think you’re paying a lot for a gallon of milk now? Just wait.

An association representing more than 40,000 dairy producers across the country is using the basic economic principal of supply and demand to increase milk prices. The National Milk Producers Federation, to which the 1,500 member Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association belongs, is planning to take thousands of milk producing cows out of the production line to help drive prices up.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey, the average price for a gallon of whole milk was $3.88.

Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, said that even with “above-average farm-level milk prices,” the average dairy farmer was still getting crunched due to high livestock feed and diesel gas prices. Kozak said in two years, dairy feed has gone up 35 percent, while diesel jumped 60 percent.

The answer, he said, is a “herd retirement program” that would cull 25,000 cattle from the ranks of milk producers. The 210 cooperative farms that agreed to the program will be paid the difference between the slaughter value of the cows and their value if they had been sold as productive milk producers.

“Some questioned whether it was prudent to use [the organization’s] resources in this fashion at a time when consumers are still looking at relatively high dairy prices,” Kozak said. “But this is a producer-funded and -focused program, and they expect and deserve to have the program operated in a way that recognizes the challenging playing field of 2008.”

The final list of farmers (none in Maryland) opting for the program was shored up on Friday, and the cattle are scheduled to be taken out of the production loop by the end of the summer. The question then will be how high will the cost of a gallon of milk go and will it drive down demand?

BEN MOOK, Assistant Business Editor

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The Baltimore City Department of Public Works issued a news release that took me by surprise, at least through my cursory glance at the headline, which said “COMMUNITY DEER MEETING.”

I’ve heard rumors that deer sometimes wander into the wooded areas of the city (one report of a deer in Guilford, which I frankly don’t believe). But are there enough deer in the city to merit a community deer meeting?

No.

This meeting, though put on by the city DPW, is actually regarding the Loch Raven Reservoir in Baltimore County. The reservoir is part of Baltimore’s water supply, so the city and county are working together on plans to control deer. The deer are eating too much of the new growth in the Loch Raven watershed, according to the release.

So has anybody ever seen a deer in Baltimore City?

ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

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None of Maryland’s colleges and universities made the Sierra Club’s list of “Cool Schools” – recognizing the higher ed institutions with the best environmental initiatives – but one university system did get a nod in Sierra magazine’s “bright ideas” section:

“Thanks to a coalition of students, all 15 institutions in the University System of Maryland are conducting greenhouse-gas inventories. Some are converting buses to biodiesel and starting green building projects, with the goal of eliminating carbon emissions.”

Some other area schools got a less shining review. Listed in the “five that fail” section are Virginia’s College of William and Mary, and D.C. schools George Washington University and Howard University.

Sierra slams G.W. for being the most expensive school in the country, arguing that it should have policies on climate change and green building standards. WAMU, NPR’s station in the District, reported Tuesday that reps from G.W. dispute Sierra’s ranking, and say the school was the first in Washington to codify green building standards.

Regardless of policies at G.W., environmental guidelines seem to be taking hold at larger schools. Last year, the Sierra Club’s magazine ran its first list of “Cool Schools” and only two of the top 10 were big, state schools.

This year’s list is more well rounded, with five of the top 10 being state schools of the largest kind. Here, Arizona State University at Tempe (51,500 students) and University of Florida at Gainesville (50,000 students) share space with Vermont’s Middlebury College (2,350 students) and North Carolina’s Warren Wilson College (850 students).

DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Reporter

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One of our reporters recently wrote a story on advertisers using social networking Web sites — Facebook, MySpace and the like — to get the word out about their products. It makes sense that companies looking for new ways to expand their client base would also turn to blogging.

“Marketing moves to the blogosphere,” a story in Monday’s issue of The Washington Post, details how both big and small companies are increasingly turning to corporate blogs as public relations and customer service tools. Or, to put it more simply, as a way to give a human face to a faceless corporation.

A number of regional companies are mentioned, including Honest Tea and Marriott. Bill Marriott’s blog has brought more than $5 million in hotel booking click-thrus, making it a decent business investment, to say the least.

Also, I enjoyed the part of the article where Bill Marriott describes himself as “a human just like everybody else,” and two paragraphs later it’s stated he dictates his blog posts into a recorder and has an assistant transcribe it. If that’s the “just like everybody else” way of blogging, then I have some complaints for my boss, because I had to type this myself.

JOE BACCHUS, Web Specialist

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