SARASOTA, Fla. — In his first year as owner, David Rubenstein saw firsthand the connection the Orioles have to the city of Baltimore and its fans.

In his second, he hopes to strengthen that bond even more.

Rubenstein touted the Orioles’ 56% increase in spending on player payroll this offseason and laid out plans for “major renovations” to Camden Yards during a 17-minute news conference with reporters at the club’s spring training complex Ed Smith Stadium on Monday afternoon.

A revamped sound system is set to be installed at Camden Yards by the start of this upcoming season and improvements to concessions areas, players’ facilities and scoreboard will follow.

The Baltimore native, who made his fortune as co-founder of the Carlyle Group private equity firm, purchased the team from the Angelos family in 2024 as a way to give back to the city where he spent his childhood.

He told The Baltimore Sun that his legacy among fans is a key driver for his investment in the organization and its future.

“I want to have people in Baltimore take great pride in the team and I feel that that will be an important thing to help this team and also the business operations and ultimately get more sponsorships, more people to feel like being connected with the Orioles is good for them, and therefore good for the Orioles,” Rubenstein said. “But I hope when I’m long gone, people will say that he was a good owner and did some things to help revive the franchise.”

Rubenstein said he hasn’t set a “financial limit” for how much he will spend on player payroll and he’s hopeful the Orioles can sign some of their young stars, such as shortstop Gunnar Henderson and catcher Adley Rutschman, to long-term extensions.

However, he does still want the Orioles to turn a profit annually, and he has long-term stability at the front of his mind even at 75 years old.

“I think you can make a profit and still do well on the field,” Rubenstein said. “So, I think that’s what we intend to do. We want to be a profitable business. In the business world, you measure success by many ways but, generally, being profitable is one of them. I don’t think it’s a good idea to put together a team that is going to lose money for the investors and might do well [on the field] in one year or so.

“But if you look over a longer period of time, you want to build something that’s gonna be around for a while, and you usually do that by having a cohesive group of people that get along with each other and feel a certain spirit and camaraderie, and that often doesn’t come about by just writing big checks to people for a year or so.”

With the Orioles’ upcoming ballpark renovations, Rubenstein hopes to continue boosting home attendance — which last season reached its highest total since 2015 but still ranked 19th among Major League Baseball’s 30 teams — and lure the All-Star Game to Baltimore, which hasn’t hosted the Midsummer Classic since 1993.

The Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park will host the All-Star Game this season and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Citizen Bank Park is slated for 2026, but MLB has yet to announce a host city for 2027 and beyond.

Rubenstein told The Sun the team is waiting to begin its Camden Yards renovations before turning its attention to the ground lease for the land surrounding the stadium, which was a sticking point for former Chairman and CEO John Angelos.

If agreed upon, a secured ground lease would automatically extend the team’s lease from 15 to 30 years and unlock the final $200 million of the $600 million in bonds allocated for the Orioles’ stadium upgrades.

As for when the ground lease might be signed, several logistical and geographical challenges remain, Rubenstein said.