That's right. The Harrisburg CBS television station was placed as a home market for the Baltimore Ravens since under the NFL rules and television agreement, WHP-TV's viewing area is within 75 miles of the stadium.
Now there is some history here. When the Colts were in Baltimore, they played on Baltimore's north side at Memorial Stadium and there were thousands of Colts season ticket holders that lived in south Central Pennsylvania. The location was a fairly easy drive down Interstate 83 to the beltway and then only a ten minute drive from there to the stadium. There were quite a few busloads of season ticket holders leaving from the Harrisburg area every home game Sunday.
Well, of course, the Colts left town at 3AM on March 28, 1984 thanks to team owner Robert Irsay and his desire for a new taxpayer supported stadium.
In the ensuing years, central Pennsylvanians switched the allegiance to other teams, mostly the Eagles and Steelers and most older fans, like myself, have never forgiven the Irsay family for the move.
Fast forward to 1995 when Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns announced he was moving the team to Baltimore. Part of the agreement to allow this move was that the name and trappings of the Browns would remain in Cleveland, so after some time, a couple of fan contests and some agonizing, the Baltimore Ravens were born. And they played their first games at Memorial Stadium. The same place the Colts said was inadequate.
Of course, the Ravens did move to a new stadium in downtown Baltimore in 1998 and have been happily playing there sense.
But back to my subject, while the Ravens have caught on with Baltimore fans, the former fans from central Pennsylvania have never come back. You can find Eagle and Steelers items in most Harrisburg area stores, but have to go to a sport specialty store to find Raven items. As far as most central Pennsylvanians are concerned, the Ravens are the visiting team.
Yet because of the silly 75 mile rule, if the Ravens are on CBS at the same time as the Eagles or Steelers, we are forced to watch this foreign team rather than the "hometown" Eagles or Steelers.
By the way, driving from Harrisburg city hall to Camden Yards is 78.5 miles and takes about 90 minutes per Google maps. NFL - give us back our Steelers and Eagles
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