Rise and Conquer, the two Baltimore Ravens mascots, will soon be joining visitors at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore for breakfast.

The event will be held for members of the Ravens Rookies Kids Club on July 16 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Members and their families will get a buffet-style breakfast, football activities and interactions with Ravens cheerleaders, Poe the mascot and zoo staff.

Participants will also get a pass to the zoo for the day. The event is free for all Ultimate Ravens Rookies members, and discounted tickets for Official Ravens Rookies members are $15. Additionaly child and adult tickets go for $25 and $35, respectively, and are on sale here.

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So, I was checking out the pandemonium next to TDR‘s offices Wednesday morning for Gov. William Donald Schaefer’s funeral service at Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Lots of police and lots of citizens lining up to be seated — well before doors opened to the church at 9 a.m. I couldn’t even cross Charles Street without tripping on a microphone cord for TV crews.

While I’m taking it in and leaning against the Tremont Grand hotel, some of its employees come out with four gold-colored, nicely cushioned chairs and lined them up on the sidewalk just next to me. One employee tapes on printed sheets of paper: “Reserved For Art Donovan.” Another employee sets up a velvet rope barricade around the chairs.

So I asked the friendly doorman what the deal was. He said that apparently Art Donovan, of Baltimore Colts defense fame, wanted a reserved outdoor view of the procession. He then asked me if I knew who Art Donovan was, just to make sure. Of course I know who Art Donovan is, he was on Nickelodeon’s Pete and Pete one time!

Kidding. I think almost anyone who’s grown up in Baltimore, even after the Colts left the city, has still seen Donovan if they’ve ever watched a little WJZ.

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Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced Tuesday afternoon that for the next week, he has banned the use of the word “chief.”

For now, the two chiefs on his payroll — Police Chief Bill McMahon and Fire Chief Bill Goddard — will be called Bill #1 and Bill #2, respectively.

If you haven’t caught on yet, this ploy is an effort by Howard County to express its pride for the Baltimore Ravens as they go on to face the Kansas City C#!@%s on Sunday in the NFL playoff Wild Card round.

“I have said it for a long time – Howard County is where Maryland comes together, and nothing brings us together like the Ravens,” said Ulman in a written statement. “We want to make sure the Ravens and all of their fans know that purple passion cannot be contained at the Baltimore border – it’s all over the state.”

Earlier Tuesday, Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined the Ravens’ painting crew in spraying the team logo in the grass at War Memorial Plaza.

The mayor, dressed in a Ray Lewis jacket and jeans bearing the Ravens logo on each back pocket, took hold of the sprayer and helped the crew outline the logo on a giant tarp.

“This year, to show our pride, we are going to ‘Go Purple’ by firing up the purple lights and painting the town purple,” she said in a statement. “No team in the NFL will have as much hometown support as our Ravens.”

The painters also went to Federal Hill Tuesday to leave their mark, and purple light fixtures are being installed around the city.

Ulman also said the Howard County government’s George Howard Building in Ellicott City and the Gateway Building in Columbia will have a purple glow cast on them as long as the Ravens stay alive in the playoffs.

But as for stripping words from our vocabulary for football’s sake, let’s just hope we don’t have to play New England at some point. It might be a little more difficult to convince the region to stop being American patriots for a week.

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Pensions, horse racing and football were some of the topics driving last week’s most-read stories reported by The Daily Record’s business news team. There was also news for Maryland oenophiles and mergers and acquisitions buffs.

1. Md. pension commission recommends shifting burden to employees
The recommendations will be forwarded to the governor and General Assembly before the start of the legislative session Jan. 12. But, the Public Employees’ and Retirees’ Benefit Sustainability Commission will be back in 2012 for another go at finding solutions to keep the massive and underfunded benefits system afloat.

2. Maryland comptroller wants to allow direct shipments of wine
After reviewing direct wine shipping practices and laws in 37 states and the District of Columbia and interviewing hundreds of people, the Comptroller of Maryland’s office is recommending legislators draft a law that would allow the direct shipment of wine to state residents.

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The e-mail came last Wednesday: Because the Ravens were once again playing “meaningful” games in December, as a PSL owner I had the opportunity to send the team nearly $900 for four tickets to two potential home playoff games.

I had to decide before 5 p.m. Tuesday.

If the Ravens had beaten Pittsburgh last Sunday night, it would have been an easy decision. They would have had what amounted to a two-game lead in the AFC North with four games to play. They would have had a very good chance of playing at least one playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium. But they lost to the Steelers.

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Gino’s, the classic local fried chicken and burger joint named after a Colt legend, is making a comeback as Gino’s Burgers & Chicken.

The home of the Gino Giant — a large burger that some say was the precursor to the Big Mac at McDonald’s and the Whopper at the BK Lounge — will soon open its doors in King of Prussia, Pa. and later on in Baltimore. Locations are presently being scouted in and around the Beltway, foodie sources say.

The old red-roof restaurants, still dear to the hearts of many in Baltimore and immortalized in film by Barry Levinson, was founded here in 1957 by Colt greats Alan Ameche and team captain and NFL Hall of Famer Gino Marchetti and their partner, Louis C. Fischer.

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The team’s value may have slipped a little, but the Baltimore Ravens’ overall rank rose in 2009 to the 8th-most valuable NFL franchise according to Forbes.com.

Steve Bisciotti’s Ravens’ total worth fell 1 percent in the past year to $1.07 billion — about two-thirds of Bisciotti’s estimated net worth of $1.5 billion — but the team climbed three places in Forbes’ annual team valuation rankings.

The Dallas Cowboys came in at No. 1 with a $1.8 billion value, followed by the Ravens’ Beltway rival, the Washington Redskins, valued at $1.55 billion. (On a related note, the Ravens pounded the Skins in their preseason game, 23-3 … I guess money isn’t everything. )

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This Tuesday, University of Maryland Head Football Coach Ralph Friedgen and U.S. Naval Academy Head Football Coach Ken Niumatalolo will visit Baltimore Ravens training camp in Westminster to promote their upcoming head-to-head in September.

The two are scheduled to attend the 8:45 a.m. training camp practice session and the coaches will meet with Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh and his staff before addressing the media on the practice fields at McDaniel College.

I asked around and it seems this is the first time in recent memory the Maryland and Navy coaches will make an appearance at training camp to plug the game. (The last time the teams played was in 2005 — and that was after a 40-year hiatus.)

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So maybe the ACC didn’t top the 15-year, roughly $3 billion SEC television rights deal of a couple years ago. But as I said in today’s story, both nearly double the member schools’ television revenue. The deal cable sports network ESPN and the ACC struck last week is worth about $1.86 billion over 12 years and as media consultant Steve Dresner put it, “It’s now time to play ‘who’s going to top this?’ ”

Conference television deals used to hover around the eight-year mark, but Dresner points out the trend is turning toward longer and for more money per year. He predicts that the major conferences (like the Pac-10 or Big 10) will now settle for no less than a billion-dollar deal.

Let’s take a look:

• The Pac-10′s current deal expires in 2012 and is roughly worth an average of $53 million per year to the conference. The conference recently expanded to 12 teams (after trying for 16). But it also has to deal with the fact that its most popular football team, the University of Southern California, is facing severe NCAA sanctions. However, according to the Sports Business Journal, networks are still stumbling over each other to make a bid.
• The Big Ten’s deal expires in 2016 and is valued at an average of $100 million per year to the conference. The deal also created the Big Ten Network, which News Corp. projects could pay $2.8 billion to the conference over the 25-year life of the deal.

Considering the ACC and SEC deals doubled conference television revenue, both conferences stand to score monster deals for double-digit years this decade. But at what point does the madness stop? I’m not saying these conferences aren’t worth $200 million per year — if the ad revenue is there (and so far it is), then by all means sign on the dotted line.

But given the recent rash of schools switching conferences, including now-fizzled rumors about the University of Maryland going to the Big Ten, it seems these contract lengths are a bit audacious.

As Randy Eaton, Maryland’s interim athletic director, said to me last week, “If two or three schools left the ACC and the conference added five more, we’re all back at the table. Either way it’s the conference wanting to renegotiate or television wanting to renegotiate.”

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With University of Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow leaving for North Carolina State, potential replacement rumors are running rampant

When she left, Yow recommended University of Connecticut Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway to replace her. UConn spokesman Mike Enright told AOL Fanhouse that Hathaway “is fully engaged with his duties at the University of Connecticut,” noting his travel plans next week for meetings with the NCAA basketball committee where he represents the Big East.

OK, that’s nice. But we all know that doesn’t mean much. What does mean something is the fact that Hathaway has a PR mess on his hands up in Connecticut and that might make jumping ship to Maryland look pretty enticing right now. What else might make it nice is Hathaway is a former Terp. Bonus for Maryland.

Last month, Hathaway announced UConn received a notice of allegations from the NCAA with regards to recruiting violations within the men’s basketball program and said the school would immediately begin the process of imposing sanctions in order to avoid further punishment.

I mean, what’s not fun about that, right?

Of course, when you look at the bigger picture, UConn has one of the best basketball traditions and programs in the country and an up-and-coming football program. Yes, I know there are other sports but we’re talking about money, so let’s be realistic here.

By comparison, Maryland’s basketball program is also good — just not as good.  Financially, Maryland basketball also has to compete with Georgetown and the Washington Wizards for its fan base and ticket sales, whereas Connecticut is a basketball-crazed state with just one professional franchise to speak of (the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun).

Football-wise, Maryland’s dealing with paying for a renovated Byrd Stadium with lagging season ticket sales and unsold suites. Meanwhile, UConn’s season-ticket sales are rising, as the Huskies played in their third-consecutive bowl game and posted a win over South Carolina in the 2010 Papajohns.com Bowl.

So what’s a guy to do? Leave behind a PR mess that could set his school back for years and head south to warmer winters (this last one excepted) and a program that has some financial challenges? Or see UConn through a tough spot and hope that if he’s successful, it’ll pay dividends down the road?

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