With the grand opening of the CFG Bank Arena and Springsteen and The Eagles opening the building, our roofer and local philosopher Bill Cole joins Nestor to discuss the long road to getting downtown competitive again as Orioles baseball and biggest music acts in the world descend upon the Charm City this spring and summer.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, arena, roof, orioles, eagles, week, city, day, night, opening, baltimore, baseball, downtown, happened, years, harbor, point, bucks, sell, thought
SPEAKERS
Bill Cole, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back, WN S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. I love this time here spring is sprung, opening day is open. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery, these instant lottery scratch offs cost this and fade leads to kick off the season Springsteen and the eagles to kick off in an arena. And next week, we’re going to be a Papist on Thursday up in Bel Air North Bel Air, the new paps location, I went up there scattered out with him the other day, looking forward to right with the Philly pretzel factory. So I know that parking lot very, very well. In many occasions on my way up to Hollywood casino for opening day. Also our friends and window nation making it happen. 866 90 nation five years it’s back to five years 0% financing. You buy two, you get two free. I got a guy here that knows about deals and knows about things. And I’m just gonna give Bill Cole and Cole roofing a little hypothetical. All right, hypothetically, Bill, hypothetically, a storm would roll through a man or community hypothetically on a Saturday night during the final four. And hypothetically said storm would knock over said anything. But let’s say it was said tree on the side of said house. And then if you know a guy, and I do you text the guy and you say, tree just fell on my property. And we got issues here and you take pictures of the roof. I don’t even know what to even say next other than Thank you, Bill Cole, thank you for being that’s all I could say. How are you? Man?
8
Bill Cole 01:44
I’m good. Yeah, that was a good one that came through. There’s a lot a lot of wind to that one. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 01:52
are you macabre about it like what we do? You know, like, it’s, it’s kind of like, what it’s gonna snow and you’re a plow guy, you know?
Bill Cole 02:01
Now, thunderstorms are more worried about the jobs that we’re working on. And whether we batten down all the hatches before we before we left for the day, like so thunderstorms are more of a worry. When hurricanes come or big snowstorms and you’ve got like that weak lead up of anticipation. There is
Nestor Aparicio 02:28
8writing toilet paper phase and to get gas and get the strong box and put the dog in the car.
Bill Cole 02:34
We do we do spend a lot of time in those weeks, like preparing and talking to clients and like setting up contingency plans. And yeah, I mean, we do. And it’s probably more like adrenaline and like, I don’t know, like, yes, a cob kind of dark. Like excitement that boils up. But yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
I know you’re a million years you entered. You’re part of my What do you and Stacy Keibler have in common? Well, you’re not in the WWE Hall of Fame. And you didn’t eat George Clooney. So I know that,
Bill Cole 03:10
right? No, I mean, I don’t know if you remember. But there was this this story of like Tampa Super Bowl and like riding around in your car or at the end of an evening. So I don’t know if you remember that. But yeah.
8Nestor Aparicio 03:22
Were you in my car at the end of the night at the Super Bowl?
Bill Cole 03:26
Well, I don’t think it was the night of the Super Bowl is one of the nights before the Super Bowl. But we
Nestor Aparicio 03:33
Ybor City, we were in Marcus Allen was that were you with me that night? I wasn’t
Bill Cole 03:39
8with you. I think we connected at the end of the night. Like as the, you know, half dead bodies are rolling out and we’re all trying to make our way out of
Nestor Aparicio 03:48
that was only like Wednesday to it was 22 years ago. You know, all right. So I mean, I’ve known you a long time, you know, in this space and in different ways. This is like a very interesting thing that happened because people say, oh, you know, coal roofing, he holds up the mug. How many times do you need a roof? Yeah, I got a guy I call the roofing guy. It’s kind of like dentists selling cars. You only buy so many cars, right? You can buy as many pizzas or as many cheeseburgers or, you know, come out and do crab cakes, do whatever. But man when a tree falls on your roof, right? Like I would just say and your guys that came out and fix the fix it all took care of it. I said to him I’m like there’s nothing in the world like it’s 10 o’clock and there’s a tree on my roof and it’s a Saturday night and it’s raining sideways. And I don’t have the yellow pages you know I’m saying anymore to make a call. It really is. And your your crew being an emergency crew. Your crew finds a mess. And I said to the dude, I just another tree and a roof to you but to me it’s like the tree on my roof. Do you know what I mean? Right?
Bill Cole 04:57
No, we talk a lot about it. I wouldn’t call it Training. But there is a element of empathy for our customers that we have to continuously remind guys that when water comes pouring into their building or their home, it is like the most catastrophic, disruptive thing. And they’re very, you know, concerned and worried. And for us, we’re like, oh, yeah, I was on that on Wednesday, and I was on one of them on Tuesday, and that was all. So there’s
Nestor Aparicio 05:31
no mess that you have never seen short of me, right? Literally there. Yes, there’s
8Bill Cole 05:35
a numbness that starts to develop, right. It’s just another repair for them. And we so we talk a lot about trying to find that empathy for, you know, the customer who’s in a distraught state, like, it’s like, Okay, we’re here. We know, this is a big deal.
Nestor Aparicio 05:53
Like the bomb went off. So there was we talked about the trauma in the city of all of these young people, the trauma of the sound of it, right, the concussive sort of holy shit that sounded like a bomb. And it sounds like I’m under it. And you’re yelling, are you okay? And your wife’s yelling? You’re okay. Are you okay? And you’re yelling? I don’t know. And that’s the honest answer, you know. So like, there’s all of that. And then there would be the water coming in the roof. And what happened at my mother’s house 10 years ago, was insane. Like the storm that just literally took the whole roof off the top of the building, like, and I get a call in the middle of the night like, but you deal with this, it reminds me of my wife getting cancer, we’re at the hospital. There we are. Anybody that knows Mary bubala, from the news, her husband is was my wife’s leukemia doctor. And he’s standing there, and I’m like, Oh, my God, you guys go into people’s rooms every day and tell them they might die. Like that’s an image. And then you try to save their life. And then I watch what you do. There’s a there’s a part about being a professional, you know, that I just, it goes without whether you make tacos, or whether you know, whatever you do professionally, making pretzels in the parking lot on Bel Air. Whatever you do, when you do it professionally. There’s something about it that goes unsaid on the other side of how much I enjoy that pretzel or how much I need that roofer, you know? Sure.
Bill Cole 07:17
I mean, I would hesitate to lump us into the challenge of treating cancer patients every day. But I do I understand the comparison need
Nestor Aparicio 07:29
8a lawyer when you need a doctor with a plumber or a roofer, you don’t need a fake one, you need to bet you when you need a root canal, right, literally, you want you want the best. And I would just say to you, you took a care of me. And it’s that’s like, it happened quickly. And we were under duress, and there was a tree on the roof.
Bill Cole 07:49
I appreciate you saying that. And yeah, I mean that look, we go out of our way. And I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff to this conversation. Like think of the wonderful country that we live in, where you’re worried about trees falling on your roof, and that’s the sound or that’s the
Nestor Aparicio 08:04
God I said to my wife, I can’t imagine a bomb going off. And kids, you know, like, I’m there even think off of my building and went off over there. If the bomb was dropped in White Marsh, and I was here, like, what? Oh, my, you know, like, this is just a tree on the roof. And like I said, it’s routine for you. But it’s not routine for the people who have the tree fall on the roof.
Bill Cole 08:23
No, I hear you. Storms are always interesting. I think it for me, it it. It emphasizes like the missed opportunity in the commercial roofing slash property management space around, like preventative maintenance. Like we pitch that all the time to people about getting us on their roof and like doing work kind of like clearing the trees out of crisis. Yeah, that’s a little bit harder, because it’s hard to pick which ones you know, but but like
8Nestor Aparicio 08:53
once a woodpeckers have been any killing for the last five years,
Bill Cole 08:57
there are things that we as humans can do preventatively to put us in a better situation for when the storm comes. And due to the, you know, crazy pace, we all play this game at like that. There’s not a lot of time for that. So I do remain frustrated with the missed opportunity of like how many times and I mean, the conversation is if your roof is a commercial property, and it’s half a million dollars to replace it. If you could have spent five grand a year to extend the life of that roof 10 years. And you look at the lifecycle cost of you know, having to replace that roof once every 30 or 40 years instead of 20 or 30. Like there’s significant money that gets saved so we have those conversations. Not everybody thinks like that, but But everybody’s
Nestor Aparicio 09:51
got a roof. Everybody knows you’re in a condo I had a condo, but I had a roof above me anyway if the plumbing went bad up they’re always gonna get flooded right?
Bill Cole 10:01
8And you know everybody has a quarterback too you’re just not sure what their name is so right. are interesting days we live in. Yeah. I want
Nestor Aparicio 10:11
to get to the quarterback Bo Cole is here for accordion energy on a better day you’ll come back out and try to sell me some solar as well. But this is fascinating man this week where the Orioles have hope. Right? the Orioles. Little Napoleon drop off born a third thinks he had a triple owner is running around shooting his mouth off making promises and writing checks. He can’t cash. And then there’s the football owner disappearing. They liars luncheon going on this week as well. And we’re going to have a draft and they’re going to dodge all thoughts of Lamar Lamar is out with his latest Instagram and tweet. He’s by the way doing a mental health thing down at the anthem. Preakness week, like you know in May he’s doing this national event, Lamar Jackson productions I got the email on it. That’s the thing. So there’s the football side of nothing happening. And basketball the Women’s Basketball was interesting demands all that right. But now it’s like here in Baltimore in this city for a guy your age my age 50 Something wherever we are opening day and hope and a baseball team with like real players like rutschman Gunner this these aren’t the days of retreads and this is the these are the good days for the Orioles and they’re gonna play six days a week right on your television in the bars wherever type of business opportunity dude, I think Leonard Raskin has wiggled me in to the CEO club event Monday, Mike Elias is speaking at an hayfields for a bunch of CEO types. This has happened before but I’m getting snuck into this one. Not to ambush I don’t have any specific questions from like, last year doing a good job, dude. What really happened in Houston, that’s trashcans be my question. But but for because I’m a journalist, I like truth. But this is a hell of an opportunity. business wise, were not just that Springsteen, the Eagles, Janet Jackson, blink 182. And Anita Baker, Bryan Adams on and on and on and on. Adam Sandler, all this is coming into the city three blocks away, there’s going to be this connection of 10s of 1000s of people coming downtown because of concerts and baseball. I mean, I don’t know how many people are going to come to baseball that’s up to them. But like, I was in a place on opening day where they had trouble finding mass and too.
Bill Cole 12:39
Yeah. I I agree. There will be an interesting pace, vibe, shift. I mean, it happens every spring, right? Like, spring, just what are they? What’s that old sayings bring? eternal hope or whatever, right. So you get renewed energy. The interesting part would be in our town right now. There’s like reinforcing points. Right. So baseball and concerts. And so there is a lot. Yeah, I mean, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 13:20
cross happens every weekend. Right?
8Bill Cole 13:22
So exciting. Yeah, no doubt. The concerts will be really interesting, because, you know, now everybody is like, Oh, well, maybe we can get tickets for our silent auction. And, you know, because like now it’s like a thing, right? Like, who would have put tickets up for a concert at the Baltimore arena at a charity silent auction, you know, like that didn’t that didn’t used to exist, like, sure down in DC somewhere, right? Like that kind of thing. But now there’s also
Nestor Aparicio 13:52
the part where you have to experience and I’m a guy that pays for concerts now. So like, the notion that it’s going to be 18 bucks for a beer or whatever, it’s, I’ll figure that out. When I get down there. You can ask Frank Ramage. He’s cordially invited on to the show. But I don’t mind any of that. But there is a point for me. Let me give you my week bill, and we’re doing this on the front end. And you and listeners may listen to this or find this on the back end and that’s fine. But like I’m staring down these couple of days. And I remember back when Steve Hennessy and I were running the world and making wn St. happen and the Orioles were the Orioles. And the Ravens were wearing Barney uniforms and trying to win. And Brian Billick was selling hope and David Modell was running around town doing all of this stuff, right. And they had a connection and a bond, the baseball team. The manager could walk through Towson mall and nobody would know him. Right? He grew a beard now he’s silver. He’s like, nobody knows who he is. Adley rutschman I mean, I I guess he’s Adam Jones is more famous. Right? So what I’m thinking like they’re trying to spotlight all of this. The football team would love to just have ever We won’t go away till September, because the news is bad. They don’t want to be in the news. John doesn’t want questions. He’s lying. Eric doesn’t want questions. I know he’s lying. Like they don’t. They don’t have a solution with this Lamar thing other than, well, he’s under contract and we love him. And that’s all they can do. Baseball should want this attention. Little John’s running around now. And doing media thinking like, that’s a good thing. It’s not because he’s not good at it. And clearly, you’re talking about guys that need better coaching and better advice. Greg Bader is not the guy John Angelo should be getting his public speaking advice from but nonetheless, the notion that there’s availability to baseball, that there’s some availability and a welcome to come downtown, and then there’s the price of doing it. And the Orioles didn’t like the cheap thing for these Oakland games this week. For me, until costus, Wednesday, I’m doing fade these Friday, I’m going downtown. Thursday, I’m going downtown to fade these inevitable beer and I’m going to walk around and drink beer and see people like you and friends wearing my Orioles gear. I do it every weather’s going to be perfect, really looking forward to it. But you think about alright, I’m dropping seven bucks on a beer at Pratt street Ale House eight bucks on a beer over across the alleyway. You know I’m going here. I’m gonna go with the game. It’s at least 100 125 bucks to get into the game now. Right? Like kind of sort of, it’s not a $40 opening day ticket. At least it isn’t now I go inside I spend money. That’s cool. That’s opening day. I’m at pickles. I’m at sliders. Here’s 10 bucks. Here’s a shot here’s a beer. Here’s a pretzel. Friday. It Springsteen. I love Bruce we go to see Bruce my whole life it tickets used to be 998 80 and 770. At the Capitol center. Everybody I know in the Bruce has at least six to $800 into a pair. It’s $1,000 night if you’re going down and have a dinner before the show, doing anything even not even fancy. Let’s say you go to a meat cheese. It’s 789 $100 night on Friday night to go see Bruce Springsteen. Then they bring the Eagles in on Saturday. And the Eagles are the tickets. I see the Eagles all over the world. These are the cheapest Eagles tickets I’ve seen, because it’s so depressed. They haven’t sold a lot of tickets for Saturday night show. Don’t tell anybody but like I can tell because tickets are 5060 bucks to get in to see the Eagles. Right. So the Orioles are playing at the same time Saturday like not playing Friday, but they’re playing the Yankees. So I’m guessing Saturday night, there’ll be 25,000, maybe 10,000 more 35,000 people downtown. But my issue with all of this is the money and coming down for Orioles or lacrosse or a show or the Hippodrome or there are a lot of options. I just want to see where the money is. Because I the arena to me, it’s beautiful. It’s wonderful. It’s better than having a hockey team or a basketball team because it doesn’t take slumps and, you know, Sacramento come to town, these 100 dates, they’re talking about 120 dates, if they really are Bryan Adams and Anita Baker and John Mayer. And at and I have no reason to believe they’re not because they’re building it to be that. But my wife just found that Alyssa was coming. She didn’t know. And then she looked at the ticket prices and said Alyssa is going to be $350 night for us. I’m like, yeah, so there is that?
Bill Cole 18:21
I think just the consequence of having a baseball game and concert on the same night. Like how long has it been since something like that happened?
Nestor Aparicio 18:31
8And what else you got to do that right? And right, and like,
Bill Cole 18:35
I don’t know, is traffic going to be a mess down there? Because again, that’s not enough. That’s not really a thing either. Right? Because there’s never that many people down there. That’s that’s a wild thing. Yeah. Like, I don’t know, and, and how many of the restaurants and how much, just general Upswing occurs? You know, to your point like the Yankees, there’s probably five to 10,000 Yankee fans who are going to come to that baseball game. I mean, every time I talk to somebody from Boston or New York, they’re always like, oh, man, we used to love to go to Kin yard so so it’s like a thing you know, like they all do it. They all ride the train. What are the reasons
Nestor Aparicio 19:15
the night did free the birds is I spent that summer shooting 43,000 Red Sox fans walking across the street. Like I had a video camera still. And this is when WB al Will they still don’t really report news. They report what’s what they they, they feel like they should. And I stood there with a camera. I live downtown and I thought it’s unbelievable. And I thought How sustainable is it? How sustainable is it that the Red Sox and Yankees are going to literally fill every hotel room in the city and turn it into a fight weekend? Because I mean, I saw it I lived in it. My wife’s Red Sox. I saw our family come down. I saw the demand for all of it when Pedro and Schilling and like, sure, I don’t sense that but the Orioles should be the next version of that. The Orioles over the next five years, they can win 100 games a year, the next five years. But then I meet the owner. And then I saw the owner last week and I thought to myself, I don’t know. I don’t know
Bill Cole 20:14
what never it will never be inverted, right? Like you’re never going to not go to Camden Yards. So you can take a train and go to Fenway or take a train and go up to Yankee Stadium or whatever, but you’re never going to do that. Because it’s it’s cheaper for them to come down here. That’s that’s the reason they
8Nestor Aparicio 20:31
this is a time to reinvigorate this fan base when every Ravens fans pissed off when Chad Steele was coming, throw me out of the stadium, taking my media credential, taking away all of my will to give them 3500 bucks to go sit in my seats where I’ve been sitting for 27 years that like and I have an orange closet full of stuff. But this is an opportunity for John Angelo’s Greg Bader, Brandon Hyde gunner, not just the wind Nestor and Jen to win any Bilko dataset. He’s going to get me day letters. So people are interested in these people. Now how do they sell it? They used to have John Miller and Chuck Thompson and they cared and they had people in the community. They get TJ Brightman running around for the 10th year in a row. They’ve had no offseason. They didn’t have any acquisitions. I’m going through the baseball side of that, but the opportunity for for baseball and for the city and for the CFG Bank Arena, and for whatever the next harbor is going to be. Billy it goes back to everything you and I’ve talked about for the last 10 years in regard to Baltimore positive. This is the most Baltimore positive thing you can imagine short of getting a world copper, whatever is Lizzo is coming to town and and Springsteen is coming to town and Don Henley is coming. I mean, what? JC will come at some point like what what more can Baltimore do on the entertainment side? Now the baseball team, they got Cal Ripken they got Eddie Murphy, what do they have now to bring me down to pay current dollar to do it. And this is their opportunity to shine. This is their chance. So
Bill Cole 22:06
the people involved with the arena are professional arena operators, who have a network that allow them to place all these great acts. Right? Correct. And they’re out in the net in the community selling and they’ve got a different model. You know, they’ve got the club level, they’ve got some subscription kind of thing, or they got boxes. So they’re it’s different. They’re coming out in a different way. And they’re doing it in multiple cities. They have the ability to do it across multiple, you know, different cities.
Nestor Aparicio 22:41
They’re in Austin, they’re in Seattle. Yeah. I mean,
Bill Cole 22:43
8professionally well funded group who knows their business, so I am very confident they’re going to find some success. Is it sustainable over the long term? I don’t know. I mean, I guess probably the Orioles? Look, the number one thing that happened was everybody forget the 2% of diehards, no matter who the player is or what the name is. The next 15% of Oriole fans went in their closet and dusted their stuff off, throw it on their head, and knew the score when we open the season up, right, like they paid attention that day. So that number will grow. You’ll get to like at least half of the people who used to be interested when they were
Nestor Aparicio 23:32
the people that watch football and talk about football all of February, all of March all of April and nothing going on, other than the quarterback tweeting poop emojis. You know what I mean? Like baseball teams actually doing something every day they’re playing. They should be marketing, there should be an impetus for you to be involved with them. If you’re involved with football team,
Bill Cole 23:51
this they are right, those fans have put their oil hats on, they are paying attention. They’re not willing to spend their money yet, right. Like they’re gonna be reserved. They’ll figure it out. They’ll find a game to go to they’ll though they’ll watch it on TV. But you know, mid August, you’re in a playoff run whatever, pennant run, whatever. You haven’t had that around here, right? I think you’ll see people come out of the woodworks especially if the football team appears to be, you know, a dumpster fire. If you don’t have if you don’t have a quarterback or you don’t have a plan by August, like you know, and the Orioles are winning. Yeah, I think you’ll see very little interest on the Ravens side because they’ll have something else to spend their money on. The money is not endless around here. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 24:41
that’s my point. That really was my point.
8Bill Cole 24:44
Yeah, I know. Totally. The the arena will take some of that money. Right. But I think they do bank on the fact that they don’t need to sell a ton of like corporate boxes and stuff. If there’s not, you know, it’s not a huge arena. There’s enough business and then like you’re always telling me how you’re traveling to go see x. So, we are an extremely accessible city. Like we have trained we have car we have bus, we have airplanes, like it’s really easy to get to Baltimore from lots of places you’re
Nestor Aparicio 25:21
coming to see Springsteen and you come in here this weekend, and you’re like, Okay, so I can go to opening day Thursday, Springsteen, Friday, eagles Saturday, that’s a great Nestor weekend, Nestor would fly to Los Angeles, and has to do weekends like that, to go see a Dodger game to go see a band, go see another band, to go eat a crab cake, eat whatever the local cuisine would be, right? I have done that all of my lifetime. I’m just saying in the modern era to do that. This weekend. Springsteen’s $800 night the Eagles are a three or $400 night and the Orioles opening days at $250 A head day or $200 a day, right. So like, I don’t know how many of those, any of us, even the most affluent of us have, you know, in us, let alone the energy it takes to you know, to want to go and do that. But the fact that it’s available, we have not had a weekend like this in this city. Let’s talk about World Cups in this and that they that thing. Angelo screwed up having the the the celebration after the Ravens won. To me, this is a celebration. Yeah, we ain’t able to parade anytime soon with the football team as as it looks the baseball team I you know, I believe that when I see it, it’s been since 1983. So let’s just call that what it is. It’s been 40 years. Right? So I would just say other than that, what can the city do other than open the next harborplace If you’re not opening an arena, a stadium and airport, you know, schools, you know, important things. But this thing that is an anchor to the communities happening, and I just think I don’t think it’s going under the radar. But I do think it’s much like maybe the club level member the club level, nobody could get into club level back in the day. And I think the CFG Bank Arena, it’s a club level on Friday and Saturday, because the entry point is to under bucks for Springsteen, right. I mean, there’s a point I want to go see the arena. Well, if I want to go see the arena Friday night, it’s gonna cost me 40 bucks to see it to get in. So seeing the new place and feeling it and doing it for a CIA basketball or whatever the your access point would be to it. But something’s going to lead you downtown. And then the question to your point is that I have a good experience that I have a good bowl of crab soup that I walk around the harbor. Was it nice that it was the science center up to snuff, then I go to Fort McHenry, how was the weather? And I feel safe? Did I? Well, okay, fair. Thank you. That’s the first one right? That Yeah.
Bill Cole 27:50
You know, people at this point, their laziness allows them to say, I’m not going downtown, it’s not safe. So that’s just the default position, right? Because it’s easier to not have to go downtown. But now there are reasons to go. So they’ll go and as long as they, you know, don’t experience some level of overt violence. Like, they’ll go back. And yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, they’re not gonna be able to go to every Springsteen, like you’re gonna have to find different events. And, like, I thought the circus was dead, but I think they’re advertising the circus. Like I thought I went to the last circus ever. That was the way it was built with Ringling Brothers, but now it’s back. Someone revived it so I don’t know. There, they’re gonna fill it up, man. They’re gonna put dates. There’s gonna be stuff there. People are gonna go, Well, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 28:43
8putting it on my calendar saying How many times am I going to find myself there in the next nine months? Maybe more than I had the last nine years being that I haven’t gone to blast games. The blasts weren’t there. I live downtown. I passed on some shows. I went to some shows you don’t I mean, a lot of it was like the mood, the weather. I remember going up there last minute to see Leonard Skinner a couple years ago. And I talked about this a little bit last week. I’ve been feeling nostalgic bilkul you know, saying I got myself a damn Passerini jersey and Warren Moon throwback to where you know, I’m into my belt buckles and my thing, but I was feeling sort of nostalgic about all of my arena memories and all, man. I can’t think of any place. Any space where I’ve been to more. That never really changed in my lifetime. I’m 55 years old Memorial State. He’s been gone 25 years Camden Yards. I don’t go there much. You know the football Samuel league went 10 times a year when you went a lot. So the arena to your point. I have circus memories, ice memories, hockey memories, indoor lacrosse, memories, concerts, concerts, concerts, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. I mean blast games, I just so many things. I went Therefore, there were graduations there and stuff like that just a lot. I was there for Tony Robbins kind of pumped me up seminars, and I saw Zig Ziglar speak there. So I like a million different things and to go into that building for the first time, after all this time, and to have some sense of nostalgia about all of it, I, I’m really looking forward to the beginning of the next thing I’ve always wondered, what are they going to do with sa house? In 1994? We wondered, how long are we going to go with this?
Bill Cole 30:32
Which is fine. And the, you know, like the appetizer is there. The main course is the ability for the ecosystem around the arena to thrive. Right? So the restaurants and the bars, and all all of that, which makes a, you know, three hours sort of event into like a five hour event. Like, is that going to translate? Because that’s how it works. You know, in other parts of the world,
Nestor Aparicio 31:04
I said to my wife Saturday night, like, we have a yoga thing, we were gonna do it like four o’clock, and I’m like, we don’t get off to mattify 36 We’re like, she really wants to see the Eagles. I don’t think she’s gonna see Bruce. She’s not going to opening day. Um, you know, I’m working all week. But the the Eagles thing, it’s like, does it have to feel special? If we go out? Do we have to go to dinner before we go, but, but it’s a Saturday night, it’s in the city, we want to go to a meat cheese, right? Like, but I’m like, Well, if we got to a meat cheese, we still have to park twice. Like, you know, I mean, I haven’t thought about it because I lived in the city for 20 years. Right. So now I’m trying to four days ahead of time, plot my path in the same way of while I’m gonna take the light rail to opening day, you know what I mean? like simple things, that transportation for anybody, your family in Harford County, your employees in Carroll County, wherever it is, whatever that plan is, to your point, I spent 100 bucks on Springsteen tickets on a Friday night, I’m gonna go have a steak before that, or I’m gonna go have pasta, I’m gonna, I’m not just going to roll in and park. Because I’ve spent 1000 bucks and look at my wife, she’s all dressed up, we have to do something and make him go to the casino. We got to make it more special. Right.
Bill Cole 32:11
Right. I mean, that’s the hope, right? I mean, that’s why the city was willing to participate, right, you find the private partners, the private public partnership, and the private money comes in, they are trying to get a return. And the city is also trying to get a return, but they’re looking for their return in, you know, thriving the thriving ecosystem. So more jobs and more, you know, tax dollars and all that stuff more. Exactly. So, you know, is it going to translate into that? I don’t know. I mean, we have a way to measure that. You know, I don’t know that the Orioles do that anymore, like they used to right. So like opening days in the event. But other than that, they’re just games. And at this point, the stadium has been there long enough. People know where they want to park. They know where they walk in at. They know where they buy their peanuts. They know, you know, they know everything. It’s a routine. They go and they leave. It’s not, you know, the inner heart. Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s what it is anymore.
8Nestor Aparicio 33:18
It’s not to baseball crew. I would agree with that. And the football crowd was tailgating, tailgating, tailgating, right? And then then it wasn’t all of a sudden, right.
Bill Cole 33:24
Right. Bringing but and that was a bring your own kind of stuff, because sort of the ecosystem around the stadium didn’t exist, right? Like we’re parking back in neighborhoods, and we’re walking out and we’re grilling, you know, everybody’s strapped their grills to their trucks and drive down and we cook and we get there at eight o’clock in the morning. And I miss that. And yeah, I mean, that was there was some good times.
Nestor Aparicio 33:45
I look at that smile on his face. I call this year call roofie Gordion energy, you know, for all of this, and I’ll just wrap with this because we haven’t talked. But Lamar saying and football and like all that just for the city for what you and I represent and you supporting me corporately, through what you do. And for all of my sponsors, supporting what I’m doing at Baltimore positive. Dude, I can’t begin to tell you 31 and a half years into doing this sitting here where it all began in the arena with me and Kenny Albert. And like all that. I think this arena thing happened so quickly. Like to something it feels like it took forever. It’s kind of like gambling. I talked to John Martin about mobile and we, you know, I’m in a casino. Now, we didn’t have casinos here. Right? Like things happen quickly, and they happen very, very. But this thing was glacial until it’s not and all of a sudden, it’s here’s Bruce, here’s the Eagles. It’s open, come on down, get a beer, it’s comfortable setting the club, whatever, right? And I’ve often I spent my whole life wondering what this is going to look like as a sports fan as a hockey guy as a blast supporter, you know, as a guy that loved the city, that the the fact that this actually is happening. I I’m a little starry eyed in the way that I was when Camden Yards got built. It’s the
Bill Cole 34:55
8same story that happens with everything we do, right? Like It’s scary. It’s never gonna work. This is a terrible idea until the community grabs it. And then all of a sudden they say, You know what? Yeah, we think that should happen. And, you know, that’s when people like the CF G’s of the world step in, right. And without a corporate sponsor like that, you know, it doesn’t go as fast as it’s going and, and everybody comes together. And they’re like, yep, that’s a good idea. And they go, and they meet the guys, the Oakview people, and they start spreading the word and everybody starts chipping in. And then, I mean, that’s every look at Harbor East, right, like, Harbor East got built through a period that an outside observer would say, How is there any capital getting spent in the city of Baltimore, with the crime and the issues?
Nestor Aparicio 35:46
The Yankees are? The top four seasons?
Bill Cole 35:49
Yes. I mean, so it’s the same story over and over again, build it, and they will come? Yeah, something like that. Like, like, we, we will rally and do great stuff. And you know, as long as somebody thinks about it, and it’s the right stuff, then it will work. But the rallying and the getting that getting it done, we’re really good at that. Like we’re really good at I mean, Port Covington is another example like, that really doesn’t happen. Other places. Like that’s pretty crazy development. And it took some crazy. I mean, that’s a nice way people to like think like that, and to push it out there. And everybody comes together, and we get it done. And now, was it a good idea? I don’t know. We’ll find out right? 1020 years from now we’re gonna figure out whether it’s a thriving part of the city or not. But
Nestor Aparicio 36:41
by the way, can I give some flowers to a friend of mine here that I don’t have on the show that cost this I was gonna bug him? You know, he’s, he’s got stay hidden, like coming on the show, Ed Hale. So I mean, Ed and I were close for a long, long time. And I remember Edie never told you the story. It took me into his original office at the port port East up into the offices there when he first got a hold of the bank. And he showed me what the hell they call it not not a diagram. I sold I saw a diagram model a model right like yeah, model of what Canton was going to look like with a port. Right, had it we had an under plastic big, you know, it was a it was like an erector set. And he showed it all to me and he said, This is going to be dining that there’s gonna be a target here one day and a Chick fil A and like all of that, and he’s gonna be shopping, you’re gonna, you’re gonna see, we’re gonna have chips come in here, you’re gonna say, and literally on Saturday, my wife and I were down there shopping in the plaza. She goes to the altar down there and the doggy cat place and the Nordstrom Rack were pulling out of there. And she said to me, Ed Hale saw this, didn’t he? I’m like, Yeah, he did. He didn’t get a credit for it, but I’m gonna give him credit for it. But at Hale saw it,
8Bill Cole 37:55
and I think he would I think he would affirm what I said because you know, the target and all that was is 28 Walker those guys so like it wasn’t Hale it was different people and different developers and these people stepped in the multifamily that’s up the street from there’s getting built by people out of Texas. I mean, like, like, it is the community thing. It’s like yeah, and you do have to have people like Ed right who have that vision. But then we all come together and we just get stuff done. I don’t know. The harbor
Nestor Aparicio 38:26
is gonna happen at some point too. And they’ll fix the hole in the in the world where the mechanic was
Bill Cole 38:32
gonna do the harbor brambles gonna do the harbor and I have confidence he’s gonna I’m gonna
Nestor Aparicio 38:36
get him a Baltimore positive to set that up. All right. All right. Bill Cole is here. He will be there he co roofing when the tree falls on your roof. Because, well, maybe it’s not possible. Maybe you don’t have a tree, but something could fall on your roof. And trust me it did. And when it did, I hit Bill and Bill and his crew and his crew came out took care of it and we are we’re really grateful. By the way bill I’m wearing my fountain shirt. I want to give a shout out to drug city. This is the fountain there. This is my daughter last favorite play. She celebrated 33rd birthday there and up at the tasting room upstairs over the weekend. So thanks to drug city, Costas, this week fade these are Maryland crab cakes were presented by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends when their nation is on cost. This faith is on Friday. Happy Opening Day. Happy Bruce Springsteen, happy eagles. I hope he plays your favorite song on Friday night. And then of course next week. We’re at Pappas up in Bel Air, and that will be great as well. I am Nestor. He is Bill Cole big appreciation of friends and CO roofing and all of our sponsors, including ROFO for powering up my coffee. Justin Tucker is not drinking a lot lately. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive
