Longtime MLB executive and Georgetown sports business professor Marty Conway discusses the road ahead for the Orioles new ownership in winning back Baltimore business in the same manner that his late mentor Larry Lucchino preached at the dawn of Camden Yards and zenith of Orioles Magic.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
larry, community, orioles, years, baltimore, money, team, people, talking, stadium, revenue, marty, wrote, franchise, robert moses, ballpark, oriole park, camden yards, executives, players
SPEAKERS
Marty Conway, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn St. Am 5070 Tacit Baltimore and Baltimore positive.com. You can set us on your dial find a stat on the YouTube or anywhere the socials ago we have social influence. So working on our 25th anniversary documentary, that’ll be out in a couple of weeks. It’s because of people like my next guest and giving me wise wisdom around here. I really lift in the show up that we can bring the Maryland crabcakes we’re back out on the road. We’re going to be Costas on Tuesday, trying to lift the community down there off the peninsula we’ll have Maryland lottery scratch offs giveaway 10 times the cash we’ll also have some PAC man’s to give away our friends at Liberty pure solutions giving me fresh water. We’ll be talking about that as well as lifting the city in the aftermath of the Key Bridge tragedy. And then of course on the 12 We’ll be lifting families in the new Lexington market having new crabcakes and we’ll be live so that’s true into five all of it with the Maryland lottery. Luke will be joining us on The 12th The 26th Every Friday that the Orioles are home reminds me of my old Hooters days back in the day where I was live before the Orioles games like Brent Musburger. This guy was live at Memorial Stadium. He’s been my friend for a long time, but I didn’t know him back when he did these. This work as a major league baseball executive and an executive with the Texas Rangers and longtime with the Baltimore Orioles. But certainly when I invited him on it had to do with opening day and Rubinstein and Angelo’s his passing and what happens the mass and all this money stuff. We’ve had World Cup final stories we can be told we got a million things that Leone’s us in the district and moving hockey teams and arenas. But Larry Lucchino left us earlier in the week, and I was kind of taken aback I knew he had had failing health, his name is engraved in the wall, down on my wife battled and when I would leave my wife’s bedside for 155 Nights. 10 years ago, I go downstairs and there was a there’s a dedication on Larry being a survivor and a donor to Johns Hopkins and Kimmel center. I mean, so many tentacles Marty Conway joins us now. I can’t we got to start with Larry and Larry and we might not get to Peter. Indeed, Rubinstein. But you and Larry.
Marty Conway 02:16
Yeah. Like I owe most of my baseball life from the front office to what he was willing to give not just to me, but to other young, aspiring executives, you know, with the Orioles at that time. And I just sat down last night, I wrote something else about 900 words, because I just wanted to see where that flowed. And in that piece, I reflected on the fact that although he was the team president officially from 1988, I think until 1993. Reality is his his tentacles and his fingerprints go far beyond that. Prior to him being president from the time that ever been at Williams bought the team in 79. Larry was probably the most influential person that didn’t have a job title, if you know what I mean. He didn’t have the general counsel title. But he was he was Ed Williams is a person in charge, if you will. I mean, Evan Thomas wrote a book about Edward Bennett Williams called the man to see and for me, Larry was the man to hear because he was responsible for the Orioles business expansion into Washington, DC regional franchise idea. He was responsible for the growth of sales marketing, the designated hitter club, television deals with W Mar and WB al radio and HTS and all TV and super TV. So the growth of the franchise and then obviously, he held the role from 88 to 93. And he played a big part in negotiating obviously, you know, and I said, and what I wrote was that most people, I think, today reflect on him connected to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but that was just a small even as big as it was, that was just a fraction of what he did
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:05
is the rose sort of blooming literally as a business and as a, as a as an entity and as a community spirit that he found in 79. Right, or, you know, at at an area. And I mean, it became something we’re also proud of, I think of the Cambridge falling What if Camden Yards fell to the ground, like we would be yummy, but Memorial Stadium, we live long enough to sort of bury it. Camden Yards, was our Gateway Arch. I mean, it’s the thing that that separated us from other cities like us at that time.
Marty Conway 04:39
Yeah. And then look, there are a lot of people that share in the credit for keeping the team in town, whether it’s Ed Williams, Larry Lucchino, who famously both said, they were not signing another long term lease at Memorial Stadium. Ed Williams phrase that he used in front of us often times was, you know, if you sign up there to your lease, it takes a city 29 years to return your phone calls. And so he kept the pressure there. You know, William Donald Schaefer, going from Mayor to Governor and the ability to supplant that he’ll hurt Belgrade. There’s a whole number of calls
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:13
leaving really is the Garden of Eden in this right. I mean, that’s yeah, that’s the original sin. Right.
Marty Conway 05:19
Right. So like I said, that’s just part of it. And, but its tentacles, literally from the time that I was there before I moved to Texas. I’m not kidding you. We had people from Cleveland. We had people, ultimately from Arlington, Texas, which is where I went, where people come from Denver, Seattle, Detroit, I can put two hands out of the number of cities, owners, Team executives, mayors, other public officials who came to Camden Yards in 1992, because they wanted to see this. And they were either beginning their process like in Cleveland, or they were hopeful for the process like Denver, and Seattle. And then the last piece that the last thing that I wrote was for me, Larry was this happy, joyous combination of Robert Moses and Steve Jobs. And if you don’t know Robert Moses, he was the famous urban planner and sort of architect in the New York area. He was responsible for building all the parkways and the Triborough Bridge and the Verrazano Bridge and putting that all together. Because ultimately, his belief was, you know, these weren’t just transportation arteries. They were also something that should blend in with the community. And so, Robert Moses never built an expressway, he built parkways, Larry, the Kino never built a stadium. He built ballparks. And I think that was a combination. And then the the jobs piece for me was Walter Isaacson wrote a great biography in 2011, about Steve Jobs, and he had a number of characteristics that made jobs special. But one of those which was unique to jobs, and I think Larry had some of this was, is what he called his reality distortion field. And that was the ability that regardless of the challenges or obstacles or what else was in front of people to block everything else out, and to focus on just getting that product to market. And I think that’s what made me think of Larry, and not just in Baltimore. But in in San Diego, too. Today is we’re talking yesterday in Kansas City, by almost 60%, they turned down a initial sales tax increase that would benefit building a new royal stadium downtown, and enhancements to the chief stadium. So there you’ve got just
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:31
a GM MRI on Monday, literally before the vote, and you’re talking about two teams add on the ends of the freeway there instead of being loved in Kansas City, right and attractive, and just who’s gonna put this money in? It’s not it’s not Oakland, you know what I mean? It’s not, doesn’t look to be Tampa at this point. So we’re giving both these teams $600 million. So like, this is a very unique thing. As we get the room. It’s just Baltimore’s love of sports is very, very unique. It really is. Yeah.
Marty Conway 07:59
So in Kansas City, you had a world series champion, obviously, several times Super Bowl champion, and they couldn’t get it passed. And in Baltimore, we built two stadiums, and it passed $1.2 billion in more federal more state money, excuse me to support the renovations and additions. And where does that come from? Larry did the same thing in San Diego took a team that was literally likely to move and turned it into a favorable publicly funded Stadium as well. So that’s why I think you have to reflect and sort of sit back and say, Yes, it’s the ballpark here and all these other things, but for me, and the last thing I’ll say is that, in my mind, Larry should have been at one time Commissioner, the base of Major League Baseball, I think he would have been the great combination of a sportsman, someone that played basketball at Princeton loves sports, but also had the executive characteristics and the executive function, legal function, etc. To do it. So, you know, that’s what I wrote in my little 900 piece to my Niner word piece to my self last night, because it made me feel better about just sort of understanding his contributions, obviously, but it started here in Baltimore, if that doesn’t come together in the way that it did, from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park, than the rest just doesn’t happen. San Diego doesn’t happen. The renovations at Fenway don’t happen. All those things sort of don’t necessarily come true.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:21
You know, I was a kid at the paper in the 80s. And I’m documenting this all these 35 years later. And he was a name in the paper. I never really knew who he was. I didn’t care much about executives, I cared about the baseball team, right? Like I was a baseball nerd. I didn’t really under I remember one time Jack Gibbons got so frustrated me. I’m like, who cares about the business of sports? And Jack looked at me, he’s like, Oh, please, Nash. You’re never gonna get anywhere. And all these years later, I have you on and I’m the only guy on the air that cares about this stuff, because I learned to care about it as a kid as a journalist, but I never knew Larry until he was gone, right. And I knew some of Larry’s people. I didn’t even really know you, but I knew David Koepp. I knew some people All and then the modell thing really woke me up because the minute the football team got here was all about understanding the business and RPSL money and it was a whole different game at that point than it was on the Orioles move my seats when Angeles bought the team from third base the lefty or whatever, because that was kind of the conversations we were having back then when cow was chasing the streak and and there was a strike and you’re in Texas and like all of that was going on during that period of time. But Larry, I got to sit and have beers with in San Diego in 97. I did live radio from a DoubleTree Hotel in San Diego off of friars road. On a Ravens road trip. I have Ralph Rubio from Rubio’s tacos, come over and tell me about marketing fish tacos in America and in San Diego, from Baja California. And Larry sat with a beer with with his feet up on a on a on a like an ASIC and told me stories and I don’t have the tape and I can’t find it’s that I can’t find it. But I have pictures of it. And we had this long conversation. And then he went to Boston and always sort of knew me. And I was always around like Curt Schilling and his wife and Charles Steinberg, like I was always sort of around that see Larry Alo, then I wanted to write the book on the Peter principles. And he got on the phone with me for a long time, you know, like an hour and a half. And he got pissed at me at one point. Because I asked him about Peter and this and his departure. He said, just call it a misunderstanding. And I said, Fair enough, fair, fair enough. Fair enough. It’s a misunderstanding. Verizon is missing. After all this, it’s misunderstood. So I think it’s the last thing he ever said to me. And then my wife got cancer. And there’s pictures of him with my wife Jen strong sign down on the field. And at Fenway Park 10 years ago, like literally this week, it was that time, my wife was battling and so I did these in and outs I have with Larry but I feel Larry spirit through you. And through Jana Marie, and through Charles and through read Vaughan and through all of you who knew him loved him. And when I see somebody right on my face with somebody in the industry, who I respect, and you can see it on my face, because I heard it was a really difficult guy to work for. And I’m thinking No, no, no, I bet he was a demanding sob. Because he wanted every he was a prick, perfectionist, he wanted everything to be perfect. I’m a perfectionist, I want everything to be perfect, or I become very prickly. And I would see him as a demanding man. But that’s how he’s got a fistful of rings, that that would be said, for anyone. And I want you to defend his honor in that way. Yeah,
Marty Conway 12:27
that’s why the last part of what I was writing to myself last night was just the piece about the part about Steve Jobs. You know, in Georgetown, we actually have an assignment around looking at the leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. And we have students write about it, and they find somebody in the industry to do it. So I’m very familiar with what Isaacson wrote. And he wrote it about the ability to focus and the ability to put products above profits and the ability to, like I said, have this reality distortion field and all these things. But the simple reality is, and you’re right about this, and that is he would always take a cadre of young aspiring executives in Baltimore, in San Diego and in Baltimore. Like they were young, law apprentices in the law firm, right? They hadn’t made partner yet. They’re willing to work, excuse me, hours beyond you can ever believe and work really hard. Because not only did Larry expect that, that’s what he did as well. And so it wasn’t like he was asking you to do something, and leaving at five o’clock, and expecting it to be there the next morning. And so I think he put that sort of precision into all of us. You mentioned, David, you mentioned Rick, you mentioned all these people. He put that sort of precision into us that just comes along and you look at the people that have worked for Steve Jobs, and spun out later, they’ve gone on to create other products, services, other things in the valley, they’ve done really great work. And that’s that’s the mix, like, yes, you’re going to have high expectations. But at the end of the day, you know that you’re working on something that’s going to impact so many people. That’s why people came to Baltimore, from those communities that I mentioned earlier when we were talking because they wanted something that’s special. So and then the last thing that I said and maybe we can finish here, as I said, the irony is that while every seat in the ballpark is a wonderful seat and has a terrific view. And no one has ever said to me that there’s a bad seat and Camden Yards Oriole Park at Camden Yards. If you take that Camden Street to Lee Street, Russell Street to Utah street, you can’t find one place where you can go into that facility and sit, a seat, a bench, whatever, that has Larry’s name on it, where you can literally sit and reflect on what he’s done. And I think that’s for me. That’s something that has to be overcome. He’s not in the Orioles Hall of Fame. He wasn’t allowed to be even considered to the Orioles Hall of Fame. And so I think that’s the first thing they need to think about doing. And the second is to find a location in that stadium. Edward Bennett Williams has something William Donald Schaefer has something I think there needs to be up place where people could gather and say, see this person right here like Robert Moses, he’s the reason why you can see what you can see. And yes, his contribution might have been, you know, in comparison to others that were that I mentioned that I just think I think that’s something that this year and next year, needs to be overcome and rectified by the current ownership and get that sort of final recognition for Larry and Baltimore that he’s never had since he left. Marty
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:26
Conway is here. He is there at Georgetown University, educating us. Hey, man, you know, I didn’t know we go 15 minutes deep on Larry. But I’m glad we did in a lot of ways, and I could keep going, because there’s so much mayhem in you. And that’s what you bring to the table when you bring these pieces. And you and I’ve talked about Mr. Angelo’s your kind word, as I’ll always remember was unorthodox. And unorthodox was always the word you used. And that’s a that’s a kind word. I would say upon his passing, I mean, all of this, the bridge falling is passing Larry dying, Rubenstein taking over Cal Ripken back on the field. If they call a guy like you are old schooler and say, come up and give me some give me some top 10 things off the top of your head, that could lift things around your earth, they put Marty Conway in charge. And I know a dozen guys like you who’ve been in these positions, that if I bought the team, I call you I told John maroon that last week, I said, if I bought the team, you’d be my first call, at least say let’s put together a transition team to make sure the community is based in this because bringing people in from Detroit or Hoboken or whatever, that kid shouldn’t be the game here. I mean, there’s a there’s a real uniqueness to this $600 million really good team on the field, medium problems in the you know, like in all of that, but I keep using Deepak Chopra as line here. pure potentiality for new owners. So yeah, I guess start with painters passing and move to David Rubenstein, because I’m sure you have a lot to say about all of this.
Marty Conway 16:58
Yeah, look, I think, you know, from from the standpoint of Peters standpoint, and I said this, you know, I don’t know a couple months ago, and we’re talking about something with another was talking to somebody else about it. I think if you pull back and look at it from 40,000 feet, I can find a numerous things that very positive for both Peter and the Angeles family in terms of how they solidify the franchise here in terms of was there going to be local ownership? Look, the team wasn’t going anywhere. It had a 30 year lease at Oriole Park. But the question was who was going to own it was Jeffrey Loria going to own it was built with gonna own it like ultimate landed in the hands of Peter who found some partners to make that work. And so there’s that part. And then you fast forward to the statues that are out there in the centerfield picnic area in 2012. I mean, that was his own money. And I know that because I was working for an agency at the time, helping them organize that that was his own money to lay out those statues out there a Palmer and Brooks and Ripken and all that. And so there’s other stories of him unfailing support of individuals who are suffering from all sorts of ailments and illnesses and, and cancers and different things like that. Having said that, then there’s the other side of sometimes getting too close to the game itself, getting too close to making decisions on players on managers, and doing things in the sword. So I can make a case, you know, in many in many certain ways. But having said that, the important thing now is the pivot. And that is where does the franchise go from here? And look, I think there’s going to be a period of indoctrination for the current ownership, there always is. But the one thing they have to think about is, what’s the reset with the community and what’s the reset with the fans? Because I think what has happened over time, as a result of the previous ownership, family, is there wasn’t that connection I left they have a great community foundation. They they donate lots of money, but by comparison to the position that the Orioles had in the community, frankly, the Ravens have replaced that they’ve elbowed him out of the first position in terms of Community Foundation, the work of the ownership Foundation’s and things of the sort. And so, you know, I would have my bag in my backpack and I’d go right up and down Pratt Street, right up and down Charles Street, right up and down light street over to Harbor East. And I’d knock on every corporate door and say, Do you have a few minutes? Because ultimately, you’re going to continue to draw on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and opening day and other special occasions where you sell a lot of digital tick individual tickets, but on a Monday night in April when you play the Kansas City Royals, and you can announce 1516 17,000 tickets because you only sold 11 or 12,000 full season or partial season tickets combined. And then when you look at the outfield wall As in sponsorship, there’s a huge hole, it’s represented in terms of community. I’m not talking about philanthropic support. I’m talking about community support from those businesses. So I think it requires a reset, literally a six to 12 month reset in the community going forward, and calling back in certain people who I think were influential, just like you’ve called back in Cal Ripken to be influential. I could list a dozen other people that if you call them in and said, Hey, we need your help, because we need to reset and restart the franchise, I think they’d be really willing to do that.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:36
I’m aching a letter to David Rubenstein, from what I know and from things like smart people, like you say to me, in regard to all of this, and this is where I’ve led with all this because whenever I start talking business with people, not you, but other people, most people, they it goes right back to I hope they give money to rushman Henderson, I hope they sign Rodriguez, the burns, and that’ll all pick up as they are 1421 and 16, and 38 and eight games in front. I mean, they’re gonna be a really good team. And there’s no doubt about that. And Elias is a genius. And if John Angeles I’m gonna say something nice about John, by the way, did the math. Marty did this with Linda Raskin? The Angelo’s family made Are you ready $1 million. Every week, they own the team upon sale. In addition, in addition to they own the team, 16 150 weeks, so it’s, it’s a million dollars a week, they made every week for 1600 weeks, and he spends 1.7 billion to buy this, it comes with $600 million of fix up the house kind of money. Now the question really, for all of them is what? How do we find a way to afford Gunnar Henderson Adley rutschman These players that are going to by their very nature, and if you want to be the St. Louis Cardinals or compare this market to some sort of maybe not top five or eight salary, but maybe somewhere between eight and 15, where they’re spending 150 to $200 million on baseball players? And then where does that money come from? In regard to the current fan base spending more, or finding fans that have never spent any money you’d like lacrosse or this or that or the movies to come? Because my biggest concern is it’s a limited market. I don’t want to say that out loud with Baltimore positive. And I just talked about pure potentiality. But there is a reality to what the consumer here will bear how many people they can get down there, where the revenue comes from, and how this thing is going to operate their product moving forward, which I haven’t talked to anybody that really understands that part of it, Marty.
Marty Conway 22:46
So yeah, so there’s a lot there to unpack. So first of all, the reason why the team was sold it reportedly 1.7 billion, which if you look at, according to what you know, publicly, we knew about revenues and operating profit. They sold for a multiple of perhaps generously five and a half times revenue. What does that tell you that, that the revenues were in the 300 plus million dollar range, down the road and Washington, that same major league team was $100 million more in revenue. So that’s why they were looking for two plus billion dollars on their price tag. So that should tell you that from a revenue standpoint, there is a gap, there has been a gap, and there continues to be a gap in terms of the total revenue. Again, now let’s look at that. Can I sell more tickets? I certainly can I sell individual tickets? I sure can. Every ticket I sell, I share that revenue. There’s expense that comes with it opening the ballpark, all those different things, corporate revenues, premium suites, stadium signs, naming practicalities around the facility, all those things generate a lot more money number one and a lot more profit from that overall revenue. And so I think there has to be a deep dive to look at where can we earn and retain more of the dollars that do it. I love fans, we should have a packed ballpark every night. But even if you did that, there’s a limit that so that’s number one. And I think some people are, frankly dreaming about the idea of signing a rutschman or Henderson to a 10 year deal at averaging 30 million per year and other the economics or the team probably don’t support that right now. Having said that, there are ways
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:38
to being a pragmatist, the guy who owned the Padres was like let’s burn down the fort. You know, I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t but I’m saying if they’re trying to heal the community and really trying to grow something which was Larry’s vision, which is where we began this conversation, which is boots barbecue serve 365 And the courtyards open and this is the place people come for Christmas. They come for Easter. They come from Valentine’s Day, it’s awesome. There’s this there’s worse Chris on the roof. Like all of those visions they had 30 that you had 30 years ago, none of that ever materialized because of who owned it the situation, the economics, people don’t like the city. So they inherit all of this, I, they need to be geniuses, Marty, I mean, literally, they do.
Marty Conway 25:17
So this is where it starts with developing the properties adjacent to the stadium, that can generate income for ownership, that they can use some portion of that or all of that towards, into the into the team, right you can you can generate funds from your operating revenues. Or you can get funds from owner’s equity slices, or from development sources, whatever those things, they’re going to need all of those to compete, given the roster that they have, and what they would like to do to retain those. The second thing about that, look, you need up a player and his agent, who are going to agree to that. And to this point, anyone represented by Scott Boris, as not, to my knowledge extended beyond their free agent year, Boris likes to walk these players up to their free agent year, got them to the final three to five buyers that are interested in signing the long term deal. There’s no wonder Franco deals out there. I don’t think on the table for these types of players. So I think that’s the reality where they are. But what I was saying earlier is now starts the hard work of looking around the footprint of the stadium. And literally saying, Is there a development partner and a development plan that we can work with, that brings more revenue to the ownership group, that they can then turn into a payroll, and expenses and other things that go with that, in addition to the corporate revenues, media revenues, etc? You have to finally settle on what’s the dispensation of Masson going to be? And where does that money go? I think ultimately, in the next 24 months will sever that tie between the Nationals and the Orioles probably allow the nationals to go on their way, either with Masson or with monumental sports. So however they do that, but I think there are some big, big, big ticket items that have to be dealt with, that are probably two to five years worth of planning and strategy that then go into how do we go forward? And then like I said, What how do we show up in the community two to three years from now, from the standpoint of year round revenues at the ballpark, operating, you know, additional operating revenues that come from really maximizing the opportunity. And that’s what I said, going up and down Pratt street going up and down Charles and Lake Street, going out to certain communities and saying, Can I have 10 minutes of your time, I’d like to tell you a little bit about what our ideas are. And then sit back, get the biggest pair of Mickey Mouse ears you can buy and just sit and listen to the community and help them understand how you grow. That’s what’s happened in other franchises. Tampa Bay Lightning when they went when the owner bought in on their southern hockey not really interested. 10 years later, they’ve got repeat NHL championships, they sell out their building. By
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:08
the way. I want to say that out loud, because I’m wearing lightning blue for some reason. But I landed with Luke down at the Tampa airport two weeks ago and we drove from Tampa, down to Sarasota. We did the orals with the Fort Myers, you know, saw the JetBlue Park did some things had some fun, you know, I mean? So it was, you know, one of the Disney area and that did the NFL owners may need to have a shot into Costa running from me. It was great. But we landed there. I said to Luke, I’m like, you know, you’re a baseball guy. And you know that baseball hasn’t worked here, you know You famously empty. He’s only been there once to see the blimp on the side of the road as you drive where the bridge is in St. Petersburg. And we even got into a conversation on that road. And I’m like, do the lightning own tamp? He’s like, really? And he’s sports guy. But he doesn’t know that. But you wouldn’t know that unless you’re there. But the lightning own Tampa because they’ve been good people. But Vaughn came on and said that to me last month, literally.
Marty Conway 29:03
Yep, yep. Yeah, no. So there are a number of models out there. You can look at the turned turn the franchise around in markets, that doesn’t have to be New York, LA Chicago, or Dallas or Houston to do that. But it takes a really regional strategy. It goes back to where we talked about the beginning with Larry Lucchino, which is thinking about this as broad as possible, thinking about central and south central Pennsylvania, the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, into the communities in Montgomery County and PG County. There are Oriole fans there, and really getting them to not only show up, as like you said buying tickets, but also corporately and socially and other ways to do it. There’s a there’s an opportunity, there’s a honeymoon out there for that for the new current or at least that honeymoon is going to be only a certain length, and at some point, all fans fall back into the same position, which is why isn’t the owner spending or what are they Spending on etc. So you want to short circuit those conversations by having longer term conversations with the community about what your plans are. Transparency,
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:08
you know, is always talked about and here’s an opportunity for, you know, they fresh start, right, fresh, fresh start is their whole that that’s that’s their key word in all of this next chapter, next chapter, New Chapter Next, well either way, fair enough, um, I’m all for that you’re all for that we’re all for that the team is going to be really good. So they have that going. And they’re going to Lord people down out of the curiosity of the team being good and fresh air and all of that. What would let you know, things have changed. You’re very discerning, I’m already like, what should a smart guy like me be looking for in regard to people changing things changing promotions changing? Be have them be above and beyond guys, you’re spilling beer on the floor over pickles and buying everybody a beer, which is nice. But what will you be looking for in May and June and July,
Marty Conway 31:00
people in the community advocating for the relationship with the team? I would say that’s the one thing that I do see from folks that are associated with the football team in town, the ravens, which is they’re not afraid to speak out about their advocacy and their relationship with the team and what it does for them. And I think there’s a lot to learn from that. And so I think that’s if I start to hear corporate and other influential community leaders, speaking about what the franchise means to them, it’s one thing for the owner to say it it’s one thing for the general manager or even the players to say it, but when you have advocates in the community, speaking out prominently about what that relationship means and how we support and how we show up, then then you’ll know that you’re starting to reach the community in ways again, there’s been a tremendous amount of philanthropic support, and that should never be overlooked. But I think if you’re thinking about the long term, and they medium to smallish size market, like a Pittsburgh like a Kansas City, like a Milwaukee, what do you have to do? What’s the playbook to do that? Baltimore, unfortunately, is only getting smaller, it’s not getting bigger, but there are larger opportunities in and around in the outskirts of town. And there’s a lot of new companies, new tech, new organizations, new craft beers, all of that coming to the Baltimore community. And I think you need to start to see the baseball team associated with those Marty Conway
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:29
has been associated with sports all of his professional career you can find them at Georgetown University lecturing on how to get smarter about the business of sports and marketing sports and it’s it’s it’s a fresh start new chapter all those beautiful things. We’ve waited a long time for this, this is going to be fun to witness right. And I know from your standing of what what you do for a living also, a case study in maybe 30 years later they find some geniuses here off the field in the business community. And really, Baltimore will be talked about as part of the resurrect the Orioles be part of the resurrection of the city itself.
Marty Conway 33:02
Yep, definitely could be two stories, the rise of the team, the rise of the franchise, the rise of the community, all those things there’s plenty of opportunity especially now with lots of lights on and eyes on because of the you know, the tragedy at the Key Bridge collapse. There’ll be a lot of focus on the Baltimore community so perfect time perfect opportunity. Oh,
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:20
he’s pulling it together. This means you and I go to ballgame now have a proper hotdog. You’ll find out that I eat it with ketchup and relish it’ll crochet out because all these mustard people the haters but I’ll always be relish you know, I’m already Conway can be found in Marty Conway ad on LinkedIn when he writes from time to time and add on the X. I don’t know if he’s on the thread yet but you’ll get there we’ll all get there. I am Nestor we are wn st Towson Baltimore. Am 57 He won’t see your family’s next Friday and every Friday before Orioles games with Luke we start things that cost us on the knife with I don’t want to call it a get together for the Key Bridge I’ve been getting together in front of the Key Bridge my whole life but we are definitely gonna be talking about a lot of issues down on the peninsula so we’re looking forward to that as well. Back for more right after this on AM 1570
