Baltimore Has Purple Fever, And The Only Prescription Is More Ravens
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Have you caught Purple Fever yet? It's taken over Baltimore, and the passion will grow leading up to Super Bowl XLVII.
Gigi Barnett takes a look at how fans are finding ways to include the Ravens colors everywhere.
It's purple, purple everywhere--including the monument in Mt. Vernon. And now, the city has a plan to send the purple birds to the Super Bowl with a bang.
Lavender flowers. Dark purple signs hoisted high. Need jewelry? No worries, we've got it in any shade of purple.
This is what Ravens fans call purple mania. And watch out, 'cause it's everywhere.
"You can't walk downtown at night without seeing not just buildings lit up in purple, we're seeing lighting projections. Domino Sugar has them. There's a laser version of Ray doing his dance," said Mike Evitts, Downtown Partnership.
And as the clock gets closer to Super Bowl XLVII, Baltimore is sure to see more of the team's color.
Fred Fillah runs Fans Only--a T-shirt company with two print shops. Their presses are printing non-stop all things black and purple. And Fillah says his team prepared for the onslaught of buyers.
"It's amazing how many shirts people consume in Baltimore. It's one of the best cities for T-shirt sales," he said.
On Monday, the city will paint the Inner Harbor Amphitheater in purple for a massive pep rally to send the Ravens to New Orleans in style. Former and current Ravens players will be there, including linebacker Ray Lewis.
"This is your last chance to see the team and send them off and give Ray your best wishes for his last game. And I think that's going to draw people like crazy," Evitts said.
Everybody is excited of course for Purple Fever. For some businesses though, it's having an opposite effect. Restaurant Week starts Jan. 25 and runs up until Super Bowl Sunday. Some fine dining restaurants say they fear they won't see as many customers on that Sunday because they don't have TVs like all the sports bars.
