Locker rooms as banquet halls? NFL stadiums aren’t what they used to be

For part of the year, the locker room at M&T Bank Stadium is where Lamar Jackson and others put on their pads and get ready to play football. But more often than not, it’s now used as an event space and banquet hall — albeit one with football lockers still lining the wall.

NFL stadiums are no longer just sitting empty 350 days a year, which is something the Washington Commanders have promised would be the case as they made the pitch to for their new D.C. stadium.

Last year, the Ravens launched their own events business called Relentless Events, which helps turn field-level suites and club areas, as well as locker rooms and the room where coaches hold their press conferences, into spaces for galas, corporate events and other private events.

Rich Tamayo, the Ravens’ senior vice president of stadium operations and experiences, said the goal is to give people access to spaces they’d never normally see.

“That’s the vibe. That’s what we’re looking for, is to get people connected to something that they probably wouldn’t see otherwise and bringing in that connec...