Thomas Humphries from Nottingham was all smiles after finding out that he was the winner of a pair of Baltimore Ravens season tickets for 20 years.
Lottery and Ravens award final prize of 2023 second-chance promotion
Thomas Humphries had been waiting eagerly for months.
The Nottingham resident has known since October that he was one of six finalists in the Maryland Lottery’s Ravens second-chance promotion who would have a chance to win Ravens season tickets for 20 years. On Feb. 21, as he stood with the other five finalists in the auditorium of the team’s Owings Mills training facility, Humphries found out he will be headed to every Ravens home game for the next two decades.
The finalists gathered at the Ravens’ Under Armour Performance Center to find out the winner of the coveted prize, which includes two club-level tickets and a parking pass for every preseason and regular-season home game for the next 20 years.
Each of the six finalists won $10,000 for being selected in drawings that occurred during the 2023 football season. The “Seats for 20 Years” reveal celebration began with a private tour of “The Castle,” which included visits to the Ravens’ locker room and practice facility.
Once the tour was complete, the finalists were greeted by former Ravens linebacker Jamie Sharper who announced which one of them was the big winner. After congratulating each of the finalists for being selected from more than 824,000 entries in the “Seats for 20 Years” drawings, the group turned to watch as the winner’s name was displayed on the auditorium’s video board.
“This is so amazing — I can’t really describe how I’m feeling,” Humphries said as he celebrated with his wife and daughter. “I have so many great memories with the Ravens. I’ve been following them since the Memorial Stadium days and now I get to share those with my family for the next 20 years.”
The other five finalists were: Heather Ammann from Suitland; Victoria Byrd from Hanover; Elizabeth Esposito from Ocean Pines; Ambaye Eyasu from Germantown; and John Kearney from Forest Hill.
The 2023 season marked the 15th consecutive year that the Maryland Lottery and the Baltimore Ravens have teamed up to offer Ravens-themed scratch-offs and second-chance prizes. Lottery players entered non-winning $2 Ravens X2 and $5 Ravens X5 scratch-off tickets for the chance to win cash and a variety of other prizes, including “Seats for 20 Years,” single-season ticket packages, travel on the team plane for the December game in Jacksonville, and even the opportunity to take the field at M&T Bank Stadium for a chance to win additional prize money in the Pass for Cash contest. There were more than 2.9 million total entries for the promotion’s various drawings.
Past winners of the “Seats for 20 Years” prize include Kim Feather from Pasadena; Dawn Brink from Stevensville; Vanessa Williams from Rosedale; Beth Bunch from Baltimore; Vernon Miller, Jr. from Bel Air; Tuesday Johnson from Germantown; Brenda Grier from Glen Burnie; Ariadna Bila from Gaithersburg; David Williams from Clinton; Umang Patel from Crofton; Eric Hall from Cambridge; Diane Heil from Annapolis and Angelo Contrino from Pasadena.
Both of the Ravens scratch-offs are still on sale, and top prizes on each ticket remain unclaimed. The $5 Ravens ticket has three unclaimed $100,000 top-prizes and more than 405,000 additional prizes ranging from $5 to $10,000. The $2 scratch-off has three unclaimed $20,000 top-prizes and more than 184,000 other prizes between $2 and $5,000.
