Maryland Business

Sold-out, New England-bound buses carrying the Purple Nation are set to roll out of Baltimore early Saturday, tour promoters said.

The groups are heading north for Sunday’s AFC championship game between the Ravens and the Patriots – with a little partying along the way.

“We have sold 80 seats,” said Marc Komins, owner of Superior Tours in Pikesville, which will take two full buses to the Boston area leaving at 8 a.m. Saturday. “People can’t wait.”

The website for Canton-based Ravens Tours said the 60 packages offered on Monday that include a downtown Boston hotel room, game ticket and bar credits, but no transportation, were also sold out.

Nestor Aparicio, owner of the website WNST.net and WNST-AM, is also taking two buses to Providence, R.I., leaving Baltimore at 7 a.m. Saturday. His game packages, that include a hotel room, “purple pep rally,” upper deck game ticket at Gillette Stadium and liquid refreshments, sold briskly, he said.

Dubbed the “Miller Lite Festivus Roadtrip,” Aparicio said his total count is 100 fans. All are optimistic as they prepare to launch from Charm City.

“There’s a positive vibe about winning the game,” he said Friday afternoon.

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Call it the “old hat” syndrome.

That’s the likeliest explanation for why prices for AFC Championship game tickets on StubHub, an online ticket market place, are lower than those for the NFC Championship game.

As of 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, for $180 on StubHub, fans could see the Baltimore Ravens take on the New England Patriots for the AFC title at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The most expensive seats were going for $2,895.

Tickets for the NFC title game, which has the New York Giants taking on the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco started at $309 on StubHub, with two tickets topping out at $20,000.

“Fans haven’t been waiting as long for an AFC Champ[ionship] in Foxborough as they have in San Francisco,” said Joellen Ferrer, spokeswoman for StubHub.

The last NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park was in 1998, when the 49ers took on the Green Bay Packers. The Patriots played for the AFC title at home in 2008 and 2004.

But Ravens fans will be holding their ground in Foxborough this Sunday. More than 2,000 AFC Championship tickets have been purchased through StubHub, with Marylanders counting for 29 percent of the purchases, Ferrer said. Bay Staters came in at 26 percent. Buyers from Connecticut, New York and Ontario are also scooping up tickets, at 7, 5 and 3 percent, respectively.

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Have a computer virus and an itching for a new Baltimore Ravens hoodie? There’s a business in town that can fix both.

Raven Zone, owned by Ken Breeden, specializes in Ravens merchandise and has two locations in Maryland. A computer guy for two decades, Breeden has a Computer Repair of Baltimore shop in each of his retail stores.

While many people come in just for retail, those who bring in computers often get lost in the aisles, said store manager Sonny P., pictured at right.

“Next thing you know, we’re looking for them because their computer is ready to go,” he said.

Other businesses around town are also packing in the purple alongside their other products.

Shoppers at Poor Boys Garden & Hearth in Dundalk can come in for both a T-shirt and a bag of soil. (Poor Boys’ other location on Old Harford Road is sticking strictly to Ravens gear for now.)

And on Belair Road, customers can stop into DePalo & Sons Inc. for pots, pans and an “Angry Raven” hooded sweatshirt.

The reason for the cross-promotion is simple, according to Tony DePalo, owner of DePalo & Sons: as the Ravens first home playoff game in five years approaches, “everybody’s getting excited,” he said.

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Howard County Executive Ken Ulman talked about a wide range of topics in his Newsmakers interview. The University of Maryland alum also gave his thoughts on the football team’s new Under Armour uniforms.

Judging by the video clip below, I’d say he’s a fan.

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By now everyone has given their opinion about the football uniforms the University of Maryland unveiled Monday night during their season-opening win against Miami.

Paul Lukas, an authority on uniforms, wrote on ESPN.com the Terps were in “court jester” mode and looked like “living chess pieces.” An athletic department spokesman told the New York Daily News the design is a “branding thing,” while an Under Armour spokesman said they were a way to “define Maryland pride and to differentiate.”

“Maryland Pride,” perhaps not-so-coincidentally, is also the title of a one-minute video the Terps were reportedly shown before receiving the uniforms last night. I was ready to put on cleats as a narrator described the Compfit Pride Jersey, “tight where it needs to be, no drag, no grab, more flex.”

You can see the ad below, which Under Amour also posted on YouTube last night. (Lukas and others reported receiving a press release about the uniforms right around kickoff time.)

Love them or hate them, the uniforms “accomplished exactly what they want to do,” Stewart Mandel, a college football writer for SportsIllustrated.com, told the Daily News.

“For three hours last night, everyone was talking about Maryland football,” he said. “When’s the last time anyone talked about Maryland football?”

All of this means one thing to this College Park alum: I can’t wait to see which of the 32 uniform combinations the Terps break out for their next game, Sept. 17 against West Virginia.

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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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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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It seems like a good problem to have but managing millions of dollars can come around to bite a pro football player in the tush.

That’s why the NFL Players’ Association has called upon Financial Finesse to help players out with planning ahead for their future without football.

“With no guarantees in NFL contracts and the potential for a 2011 lock out, we want to make sure our members are prepared for injury or anything that cripples their career,” said DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA executive director. “We’d also like them to transition from football to a lifetime of financial security and independence — something that is possible only with smart financial planning.”

Financial Finesse is based in California and the NFLPA is in Washington, D.C.

I have written about this topic before and focused on pro baseball players, but saving money for the future can be an even tougher concept for football players.

As financial adviser Joe Geier told me then, football players are drafted and go straight to the NFL with a lot of money at a young age — many go from living it up in college to living it up in the league but with a mush bigger expense account.

Baseball players can be a little more worn down by the time they arrive in the majors. Most are drafted, spend a few years in the minors getting paid a pittance and have the chance to calm down a bit before they’re called up. While they are certainly capable of blowing through paychecks when they finally do get their millions, the problem is more prevalent in the NFL (and the NBA for the same reasons).

While much of the spending is for toys like a big house, cars, etc., another large part of players’ spending goes toward taking care of their family members. That plus taxes, and these guys aren’t as insanely wealthy as it might seem. (They’re just semi-crazy wealthy.)

I go back and forth between feeling sympathetic for players — mostly for the ones who don’t get their jerseys sold in stores but who protect the guy that makes 10 times as much as him — and thinking it shouldn’t be that hard to save money when you’re still paid a premium by anyone else’s standards.

What do you think?

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If you’ve ever responded to an obnoxious Red Sox fan at Oriole Park, “Yeah? Well our crabs could kick your lobster’s butt any night off the week!” then this is the bet for you.

The university presidents of Towson and New Hampshire have a friendly little wager going for the Oct. 3 football game between the UNH Wildcats and the TU Tigers: one bushel of Maryland blue crabs against one dozen New England lobsters (or, “lob-stahs”), winner takes all.

And much like when the Boston Red Sox play the O’s here, you can expect a strong New England presence for this one. The UNH D.C. Alumni Chapter and UNH Athletics are partnering to ensure the university has a strong presence at the game and are hosting a tailgating reception for Wildcat fans before the 3 p.m. kickoff at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson.

I like this idea; it’s clever. But they could bump it up a notch. Like say, next year, instead of a bet they should have a crab and a lobster “race” across a fish tank in lieu of a coin toss to decide the receiving team. Of course that would probably cause a PR storm…but it could be pretty entertaining.

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