As we all await the Angelos Family signing a long-term lease at Camden Yards and the Orioles offseason spin will begin, Bill Cole and Nestor wonder exactly what the teams want and what the city needs to build a better future footprint for the Inner Harbor and the future of downtown Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
talk, years, game, roof, baseball, baltimore, city, good, orioles, phillies, john, winning, maryland crab, stadium, buying, built, tickets, team, put, philadelphia
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Bill Cole
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
What about W and st Towson? Baltimore? Baltimore positive. I wish I had some crabcake tour dates to give you right now, but they’re in flux. I’m working on about eight of them. between now and Christmas. They’re all gonna be brought to you by the Maryland lottery. We did have some winners. The two last week were Hollywood casino on Sunday, had a bunch of winners up there had a really good time and a victory for the Ravens as well. Our friends at weathernation 866 90 nation they well we’ll install them and make it happen for you 0% financing it by two you get two free that’s going on all month long October as well as the newest sponsor we have which is Jiffy Lube multi care. I think my wife is going to be the one that takes the car over to Merritt Boulevard here this week because the little orange light came on last Friday as I was driving to drug city for the Maryland crab cake tour with George Shaolin and my son, Barry Aparicio and Chuck Jacobs, we had some old fashions we drank we talked, we talked science, math, stem, stuff that I’m not good at stuff that I don’t understand physics, biology. I’m just trying to get through horticulture at this point as it were my curious shirt by the way, Wendy Brown, fine. We’ll be on this week discussing the education of cannabis as well. This guy’s going to discuss I mean, he does roofing he doesn’t do anything sexy like sports radio or cannabis or, you know anything fun like that. He does roofs. It’s not sexy. But it is when I have the coal roofing mug and my royal farms coffee. We’ll call where the hell have you been you? People are wondering about us. People are talking on the internet. They’re like, is Nestor hanging out with the other bill Cole. Like what happened to Bill Cole? He’s been on like you skip the playoffs? I haven’t had you watch us a football season started. Where are you been?
Bill Cole 01:38
I just won there is a percentage of the population that thinks roofing is sexy. So I don’t want to just totally Excel roofers
Nestor Aparicio 01:46
are sexy. I didn’t say that. Industry, though, however, is and
Bill Cole 01:51
I also want to tell you, because you would appreciate this. You reminded me of the crab cake. I had a main crab cake,
Nestor Aparicio 01:59
then it could not have been any good. Was it made?
Bill Cole 02:01
It was no no, it was crab. But you know, it was like far enough away from someone not attempting to make a Maryland crab cake that was like, Okay, I’ll I’ll try someone else.
Nestor Aparicio 02:10
What did they do put some lemon in it or some sage or they what did they do with it?
Bill Cole 02:16
They didn’t do anything. It was a very bland, crab. Little bit of filler. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
if you are reporting to me, I’ve seen you too much reporting to me that you got to crabcake somewhere other than Maryland. It sucked. And this is news.
Bill Cole 02:30
No, it was in Vermont and it didn’t stop. There. I understand. That’s why the doing. Like that was the whole point.
Nestor Aparicio 02:39
When you’re in Vermont, you don’t want eat ice cream. When you’re in Vermont. They make good ice cream. There was some maple syrup, get some pancakes.
Bill Cole 02:47
It was a joke. I was with a bunch of other people. It was on the menu. They were making the jokes about me just not hungry. So I was like, I’ll just tell you not I was it was very, very, very pleasant. It just wasn’t a Maryland crab cake. But they were not. They weren’t claiming it to be either. So they were smart enough to do that. Right? They weren’t pretending to be American.
Nestor Aparicio 03:09
So they didn’t do what that restaurant down in South Carolina did the Damien fade Lee’s which is a fadeless crab cake on their menu when these people sat down. Where are you been? I mean, like I loved it. Listen, we could talk about we’re going to talk about AI at some point. We’re going to talk about football season London travel. You’ve been all these places, but you sort of missed the baseball playoffs, right? I mean, like, oh, oh,
Bill Cole 03:38
yeah, no, I certainly did not get a chance to talk to you about it. You know, I I think I’ve been pretty consistent about being honest about my sort of lack of engagement with the Orioles and even though they’re winning and I’m surrounded by like diehards, and they kind of cute
Nestor Aparicio 03:58
kids don’t care about it. Is that part of the problem?
Bill Cole 04:01
Well, my kids that I’m so glad you brought that up. That just reminds me how terrible of a father I am. We were you know, I would say the Orioles became irrelevant to them about what this point it might be like six weeks ago, you know, they like figured out who they were and now that they didn’t know but yeah, everybody
Nestor Aparicio 04:20
just awakening, right, it was a thing. And then all of a sudden, they really are in first place. I mean, I noticed they were good in May, April, right? Like we’re here but we’re in on the party. And I think the saddest part for me, Bill and like seeing this, and I’m you know, I’m just being honest. If John Angelo’s sitting here, he’d be wildly offended, as with TJ Brightman and, and Greg bater, who’s been running the place for 25 years and you know, doesn’t have time to meet anybody that you haven’t met any of these people. Or if you have, they haven’t done a great job of selling you. But, dude, I went down there for that Tampa game. That was the biggest game they’ve played and there were 25,000 people there and tickets were six bucks. And then I see in Philadelphia this week. It’s $300 to get into the Al DS last week. And then it’s a football game. And it’s a party and everybody that goes to the Eagles games goes to the Phillies games, and they don’t mind spending two or 300 bucks for playoff tickets. You know, the Orioles have a long way to go here. I mean, we could talk about them on the field all day long. But right. And, and this is it’s this kind of talk that makes John Angelos go up to New York and say, that market can’t support baseball the way you think it can. It’s not 1966 anymore. We just won 101 games, and I can’t go Cole’s not giving me 100 grand for a skybox. He’s not, neither is any of our clients.
Bill Cole 05:38
The other thing I would say that only makes it that much more concerning is once you do lean in a little bit, and you look at the roster, like you’d be hard pressed to find a better group of guys, who seemed to be, you know, genuinely like 23 and just having the time of their life playing baseball and getting paid and winning. And you know what I mean? Like they’re just a fun group to root for. So, you put on top, you know, it’s not even like, some resistance that could be created around buying a bunch of free agents or you know, getting
Nestor Aparicio 06:21
six games next year and took your kids and your family down there. By the end of the summer. Would they be in the gunner Henderson? Would they be into Adley rutschman? Would they say dad give me a lacrosse ball, soccer ball, whatever their thing is. And yet, listen, I mean, I’ve been trying to pimp the Orioles brand for 32 years. They think I hate them. They think I’m out to get them. I saw it all come to life. Last Tuesday, when I flew to Arlington, they mistreated Luke, they really mistreated me Major League Baseball and the Rangers were in on it. And I’m thinking to myself, this isn’t about the old man anymore. This is about John. And this is about them lying about a lease and making the governor lie. And now the governor has to get in front of me in a couple of weeks and sit and tell me that there’s a deal when there’s not a deal. And you know, it’s somebody told me, I haven’t said this on the air. I don’t want to say I’m gonna say this because we’re talking about baseball, and we’ll get some serious issues.
Bill Cole 07:12
I want to hear more that there’s not actually a lease.
Nestor Aparicio 07:16
Yeah, well, that’s a fact. I mean, there’s not really a lease. I mean, there’s like,
Bill Cole 07:20
oh, they just came to
Nestor Aparicio 07:22
No, no, John decided to put up on the scoreboard that he was never moving the team until the rockets red glare. There’s no lease, there’s no lease. There’s no lease. I mean, when the lease is signed, they’ll have us all down on Apples and I’ll get to see the ink on the deal. Right? So here’s what a friend of mine or a friend of mine on the inside when all of this went down because they announced that there was a lease when there’s not right I was there
Bill Cole 07:50
I was that that was my what I was trying to get through earlier was that such a bad fit. That was my one game that I went to all year was the Al East clenching game where TV did a great job because everyone I talked to made it sound like the place was rocking. The there was no one in the upper deck. Like you’re winning you literally clinching the Al East. And yes, the tickets are eight bucks, the 15,000 people that were there. Yeah, we were we were allowed as hell and everybody was excited and having a great time, but you couldn’t draw a 40
Nestor Aparicio 08:25
I went the night before with my wife and she wore red sox stuff because they needed to beat Tampa for us to get in that night and he didn’t they were losing five nothing the third inning or whatever. But we went down on the I guess it was the Wednesday night you know, I’m going back home three weeks now. Right? But we went down that night and there was nobody there and we you know, like we paid six bucks for tickets and you know, eight bucks or whatever it was and like
Bill Cole 08:48
it was a great time. It was everything that you like remember it? And you know look, I love the pace of play. The extra inning thing is stupid. I think they’ll get rid of that. They know that stupid that’s why they don’t have it in the playoffs. So you know
Nestor Aparicio 09:02
IT guy on second base, they are gonna get rid of that. They will that’s the way they get the game’s over quicker. That’s the that’s the method to not have 15 inning games.
Bill Cole 09:12
Yeah, but 15 inning games, in any games eat
Nestor Aparicio 09:15
up your bullpen. Everybody hates it. And
Bill Cole 09:20
fans like yeah, no, you’re right. No one wants to be there. But the point is, is that that’s the story the whole next day that people talk about and that’s when the crazy stuff happens like the left fielder needs to pitch next inning because we’re out of pitch. Like that’s drama. That makes people love the gate anyway. Anyway, go I want them to hear you’re
Nestor Aparicio 09:39
having a great baseball argument with me. I don’t mind that. I did that for a living here for 26 years. You know, whatever the bottom line is, they’re not a sick franchise. But there are distressed franchise and they need more bills and nesters to go and I flew to Texas last week and they’re still banning me and I’m still with an FCC license with 100,000 followers that every day I say they treat me like garbage. They really do. And I don’t treat them like garbage. I chase them around and talk about them like a journalist, like a fan, like a citizen, like a responsible radio station owner that reports to the community that writes about the team. My last name is Aparicio wearing orange and black. I have a closet full of Oriental stuff, but I won’t give them money. I make real money. Like I can’t advocate that. And I can’t say, oh, things have changed. You know what’s changed. They hired a baseball guy who knows what he’s doing. And they were so awful for so long, that they’ve amassed this wealth of young players. And they actually have a system now to train him. They have fixed the baseball operation. But as Luke and I have talked about, and Luke doesn’t love talking about this, because it involves money and management and ownership and lease, it looks on interested in that looks after the game, right? So for me, this is really the time where Luke and I come to heads and say, This is where ally says to go down the hallway and get real money from John Angelos.
Bill Cole 11:08
Yeah, but it’s not even I don’t know, it’s really I’m looking at your background right now. And I’m here to tell you that unfortunately, in you can’t. And I’m pointing but I guess you can’t really see that can you you pointing at, at your in your background, the spur of 395 that runs between the two stadiums. So if that road wasn’t there, there would be a ginormous mixed use retail.
Nestor Aparicio 11:41
In Philadelphia, I mean, just walk to that XFINITY live. Plop that down, right? They’re gonna plop down a giant sports bar with some something with some yard Barker yard Roadhouse, beer, and
Bill Cole 11:55
I think it’s more than that. It’s going to be condos and retail and yeah, maybe another casino or maybe just a giant bar or whatever. But filling in between where there’s parking. Lots are coming over here. Right behind your that will be your right shoulder. Is the Richmond Fed building. Right, that needs to go. That’s gonna be a giant parking garage. Federal Reserve,
Nestor Aparicio 12:18
you’re saying? Yep. The neighborhood that I lived in at the top of Lee Street? Yes. Yeah. Center. Yes.
Bill Cole 12:25
On the other side of you is the convention center. Right. Like we can bring that across Conway there. And where were the Richmond Fed building was and expand that way? Like, in order for all this stuff to really work? The traffic ladder? Right. Yeah, their plan is very much to eat up and consume the area around. I wouldn’t be surprised like I don’t know what their plans are for. What’s the housing neighborhood on the other side of reciter fine. No, no other side going the other side of the stadium other side of town? Yeah, but it’s to the it’s to the south of peak tab. Hold on. It has a name Camden it might be Camden
Nestor Aparicio 13:10
okay. You were staples is kind of sort of
Bill Cole 13:15
Yeah, but north of that so closer closer really to like across the street to pickles
Nestor Aparicio 13:22
that was right. No station whatever it is.
Bill Cole 13:29
All that all that neighborhood back in there were like Babe Ruth birthplace okay. Yeah. I think they call it Camden but I’m not sure what it is. You know, like the, you know, somebody’s trying to figure out whether they can eminent domain that entire corner, get rid all those houses and put the condo mixed use building on that side,
Nestor Aparicio 13:54
condo mixed use, right on the other end already. The zenith? Zephyr whatever the hell that thing is. And, like, I mean, we have plenty of availability for people who want to live downtown. Right. I mean, I had a condo I couldn’t give away for a building. It’s half. You know, like,
Bill Cole 14:11
it’s not about that. It’s about John Angelos and Steve Ashati. getting richer make Yes, being able to make their assets more valuable. Right. Sure. I don’t think John owns the zenith. Right. Like, that’s nice. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
mean, it’s all man always wanted the land. That was the Hilton, right. And his old man always wanted to usurp what became sports legends in the Jeppe museum. And he did everything he could do to put all these people out of business bill. I mean, I’ve talked about this for 30 years. He did everything he could do to get rid of Japanese get rid of sports legends, and now it’s just an empty building. And he did everything he could do to shut down the courtyard on the warehouse. Shannon Murray, Marty Conway. I had Charles Steinberg on last month. I had Rick Vaughn on last month. These are all people that were or had offices in the warehouse the day that the Orioles came to life in April of 92. Downtown. They were going to have a Ruth’s Chris in the fifth floor right there was going to be a camping club, there was going to be a membership. They were going to serve booths barbecue 365 days a year on a courtyard, where you would want to bring your kids down and stroll for lunch and run the bases in March. Because that’s what the idea, that’s what the concept was. So everything you’re pitching me is something that was delivered to the Angelo’s family in 1994. And the old man systematically did everything he could do to destroy it. I mean, it’s, I’ve witnessed it, I’ve I’ve been on the air every day for 32 years, everything you’re talking about. We’re gonna breathe life into that area. That’s what the $300 million was supposed to do in 1992.
Bill Cole 15:50
Yeah, yeah. But now it’s like,
Nestor Aparicio 15:53
you know what took the life out of it. Shitty baseball. That’s what took the life out of it. Awful baseball. 50,000 Yankees fans coming down 10 times a year 50,000 Red Sox fans coming down 10 times a year. And they would say crime crime crime, crime crime, Freddie Gray, that, you know, they would say all of that. And but that’s not the truth. I lived downtown for 20 years during all of it. The truth is the team was horrible. The owner was a horrible human. And it chased everyone. And now we’re trying to figure out why there’s 20,000 people there in a clinch tonight when tickets are eight bucks and how 90 miles away the Phillies who are not nothing compared to the Orioles as a brand like Right. I mean, the Phillies are, you know, they’ve lost more than they’ve won the Orioles. Were something here something that we built the stadium for them and built the whole city around it. Philadelphia never felt that way about the Phillies, or the flyers or the Sixers of the Eagles. But it’s a sports town and people spent $300 to go to the games. The passion for the team Bill has to come back. I mean, at the end of the day for it to be successful. You’ve got mixed use this and gambling that people need to want to come down and love the team. Your daughters need to love Gunnar Henderson or somebody’s daughters need to love Gunnar Henderson. Alright, if you’re willing to pay for it, be willing to pay for it. So gunner Henderson can make $48 million a year because that’s what it’s going to take.
Bill Cole 17:20
So number one, and I will just set this to the side for a second. I obviously agree with you on the bed baseball park. But the Ravens pretty much have done nothing but when and they’re literally attached to the same parking lot. So where’s the development that’s come from? They’re winning? They have similar problems, right?
Nestor Aparicio 17:41
They have worse problems. Their tickets are $10. Right?
Bill Cole 17:45
I mean, the lions game this week.
Nestor Aparicio 17:47
Here’s the Nesta advice. Wait until 1215. On Sunday, tickets will be somewhere between 15 and $30. Might be 10. If the weather gets real bad because it’s supposed to be in the 50s. Right. I mean, like low 50s that chases everybody. The rate your rate and Dennis said this ravens PSLs are worthless. And in Philadelphia, they’re PSLs are worth 10 or 15 grand.
Bill Cole 18:10
So okay, so now Good, good transition to Philly. Here’s the part that we don’t have fair appreciation for in the city of Baltimore, Gemini people there are 400,000, maybe 600,000, whatever. Between 406 100 in the Baltimore Metro and how many people 1.4 million? Call it 2.8. Close to 3 million. Right? Okay, you’re counting city and five surrounding counties, people that were within 45
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
million people in the city and five counties.
Bill Cole 18:47
We really do. Yep, people that wouldn’t drive
Nestor Aparicio 18:51
800,000 People Baltimore County, right, like, I mean, it’s like, there’s a lot of people here, right.
Bill Cole 18:56
Okay. Do you know how many are in the city of Philadelphia?
Nestor Aparicio 19:02
Well, Philly is a lot bigger than us. I mean, I understand that. And then you want to count jersey and
Bill Cole 19:08
1.6 million people in the city of Philadelphia. So for x the people living in the city of Philadelphia in this in the Philadelphia Metro 6.1 million
Nestor Aparicio 19:24
right? The Bucks County
Bill Cole 19:26
easily that but you want to know why? Phillies you know, tickets are worth $300 You’re drawing from 6 million people you’re drawing from twice as many people right? Twice as many people in you know as you go north the standard of living the cost I’m sorry, the cost of living goes up.
Nestor Aparicio 19:50
So speaks to Washington’s money supporting the Orioles. Right. I mean, let’s go back to the original sin here, which is Peter didn’t just allow the Washington thing to happen. But he never wanted it to happen. His mismanagement led to Washington, really demanding its own team and by having major league baseball have a calling for that. I’m not sure that that was really inevitable had Peter not mismanaged the franchise between oh eight and let’s say 98. No for I mean, I was on the air for all of this. And Peter sat down with me to talk to me about this about this issue. And what he would do his prescient thought is it will destroy both franchises, that’s in his words, just like the Bay Area, Oakland, San Francisco, it can’t have to. And that’s turning out to be prescient, too, especially when one team has all the riches and the other team doesn’t have any of that. But the riches in the Baltimore Washington deal is that Washington has Washington money and federal money to draw from and Baltimore has been gutted of the banking industry. A lot of industry here, and who was buying those sky boxes? Who was buying those club seats at a premium price? Who’s buying those box seats at a premium price? Who’s buying sponsorships at a premium price? Not just buying them? I mean, I’ll go get a ticket for $10. That’s not That’s the Orioles are living on is people buying $10 tickets. And when I go out there and I walk around and I look around, I’m like, where’s the money that’s going to support this? Endless Listen, John’s going to cry poor when he’s got plenty of money, plenty of national television revenue and media revenue and revenue sharing. He can afford Gunnar Henderson he’s gonna play this game. He’s gonna bullshit you because that’s what he actually is. But but but the fact that they can’t have a 90 or $110 million payroll, they can they can and they haven’t in years, but part of it is he’s going to cry poverty, because that night in the upper deck, and he’s gonna say where is the money? And I’m going to ask you where is the money? Because when I was a kid and Camden Yards open, I would go down there, you would see all sorts of Northrop Grumman. But you’d see crown gasoline, First National Bank, Provident Bank, First Bank, Bank, Bank, Bank, Bank, hospital, hospital, hospital, local business, strong local business, like, hey, great. I’m not seeing that bill. I’ve seen guys like you get on a junket with accelerant and go out and get a skybox for 10 cents, or traded out for a night, deal with the $18 beers and all that and go home, but you’re not leaving a half a million dollars behind. And I don’t know what the recruitment is, when you insignificant people who buy things and have money and have businesses get together with them. The TJ Brightman walks out with real sales, not a 13 game package for you and your wife, you give him 1200 bucks, and you go down there a little bit and buy some popcorn. I’m telling you, man, I travel, I see the money I was down in Texas, I see the oil money down there, I see the people that are going down there, I see the people that are buying sky boxes. And I am worried I’m worried about the whole totality of all of it, and our citizens giving them one $2.2 billion. And saying, We’re gonna build a casino and have a place for people to live and y’all are gonna come down here. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know that.
Bill Cole 23:16
Here’s, here’s kind of how my thought process on all that has evolved. So major league sports teams are like, benefits that you give your employees. Right. Like, you want to be a real city. You better have a major league sports team, right? Or you’re not a real city quality of life. Yeah. So it’s a benefit that goes with the package of living in this area out of status. Yeah, of course. So. So the issue is, this is one conceivable perspective, right not to necessarily take John side on this because I don’t want to do that. But when the city and the area around, does not do the job of growing and bringing business in and bringing people in then his added benefit to the city suffers. So when when
Nestor Aparicio 24:18
you guys went down to Arlington last week, and saw what they built down there, they have two giant baseball stadiums. In the middle of nothing in the middle of literally Glen Burnie like I’m not trying to find Glen Burnie but what they’ve done is they
Bill Cole 24:33
know enough about that market, but it’s not a downtown
Nestor Aparicio 24:36
walkable. It’s there’s nothing about it from a civic standpoint, that says community in the way that San Diego, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Chicago on the north side with the difference between the Cubs neighborhood and the White Sox neighborhood is nine miles go see it. You know the White Sox have a state your crappy Stadium at the edge of a freeway in a troubled neighborhood, the Cubs have taken all of this money and built a wonderland, you know, in a neighborhood. So I hear you, I’ll take John side on that the next baseball owner should expect something that’s representative so that they can compete with what’s going on. Everywhere else in their industry. I agree with that. 100%. John is speaking, spitting truth in that way. The question is, is whether he’s the wisdom guy, and he’s the guy in the front of the operation, to be the visionary to lead this because he’s not?
Bill Cole 25:38
Well, the issue, the issue was that neither party in that argument could really say anything to the other one. Like, you know, everything John wants to say about the city and public safety or, you know, not attracting business or not growing business or not doing big projects or not pulling people in. That’s all true. And then they’re all just looking back and said, Yeah, John, and you have totally sucked. So forever. So
Nestor Aparicio 26:05
be a leader, if you’re gonna be a leader, be a leader, about that steep shoddy. And you know, you’re the work giving guys that don’t even hang out here that aren’t even seen here, ever, in front of real people. We’re giving them all this money. And then they send out people like Chad steel and Sashi. Brown, and Greg Vader. Like,
Bill Cole 26:28
that’s the point. Why, why don’t they hang out here? Why Why isn’t this a draw? What is the what are the real problems? Like? Like, why can’t we we have literally the bones like you hear people talk about this all the time. We have the bones of one of the greatest cities in America, right? Like our proximity to other population centers, our transit, the airplanes, the trains, the water, I mean, we now have the beaches all that we literally have every you can check every box that you want to check. So what is the problem? And why can’t we recruit business? Why can’t we build business here? There’s ecosystem stuff. There’s lots of stuff there. And I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 27:11
well, every part of what you do, and this is the part I love having you on bill calls here, from coal roofing, you’re really one of the guys you were Minnesota last week with a local contingent trying to learn things. You’ve been to Detroit, you travel places, you go to Vegas every year. I’ve been a part of these things, and Mako and leadership. And this is one of the reasons you and I got together and concocted a concept of running for mayor for me or whatever. It’s really about bringing people together. Like it really is. It’s it’s a consortium of a community people. And that’s what the Greater Baltimore committee is about. Listen, I had Beth Rheingold. On this week from a greater Baltimore Chamber of Commerce. We talked about Nancy Halford over in Taos and what a Chamber of Commerce does, you know, like trying to bring business leaders together, that’s how Camden Yards got done. Canton yards got done, because we screwed up the Colts Schaefer built, brought people together and he pissed people off, and he did things maybe he shouldn’t have done, quite frankly, and sort of, you know, pushing things through the way politicians could or should, in regard to telling Jack Kent Cooke, you’re not getting roads built into your stadium and Laurel, right. So the Camden Yards could happen. And all it’s done is created wealth for a family that has given very little back. And it’s Take Take, take, take take, and now they’re not even signing the lease. So and they’re winning. And to your point, people aren’t really going, and I keep saying, where’s the money? And you say to me, well, we don’t have any we don’t have any people. We have people, we barely have any money. And but but you know, if we brought people together, we were good enough to steal a football team, build a baseball stadium, build a football stadium, Bill, we’re not in a position to be able to do that right now, from a leadership standpoint, and I talk to you about that we don’t have the strength. I mean, we have the strength to write a check to keep these guys here. But if we had to go recruit, I mean, that’d be a very difficult thing to do. And we’re rebuilding harborplace, the CFG Bank Arena would be a great example of something that did come to us and I’m going to see John Mayer on Friday that I wouldn’t be doing that if we were still talking about the royal farms arena or the first Mariner arena, right?
Bill Cole 29:20
I I definitely not. I totally take a skeptic viewpoint first. Always. So I was fairly skeptical about the CFG arena. And I’m here to tell you, I was wrong. It is a gym, and it is going to have you know decades of impact. Right? Like it is a big deal.
Nestor Aparicio 29:39
It brings me downtown every couple of weeks. Yes. And I parked my car and I make a note of it. I’ve been down there for Queen i but you know i
Bill Cole 29:48
and it’s made in a way that it’s not going to lose its luster right? It isn’t it isn’t great because they put a coat of paint on it. It’s great because it functionally works for The band’s to get in, play a show get out really cost effectively. And it’s between major metropolitan areas that they want to play anyway. Right. So so the the realness of it is going to be sustainable. You brought up Minnesota, right? Here’s the thing. Fortune 500 companies headquartered in and around Minneapolis, right? Target UnitedHealth Group, General Mills, US Bank Corp, Xcel Energy CHS Best Buy, like they have 15 fortune 500 companies that are headquartered in and around there. Everyone says, Oh, how do you do that? How do you do that? What do you do for them? They all I shouldn’t say all the story is, they started there. And they grew into these giant companies.
Nestor Aparicio 30:55
And you’re wearing an Under Armour logo here. Right?
Bill Cole 30:58
What is Baltimore doing? What is Baltimore doing to support young companies, middle market companies and help them grow into giant companies? Like, how are we bringing the talent in? Right? I mean, how can we not have talent? You’re telling me that Hopkins, loyal UMBC College Park, you be can keep going Kopan? Morgan, thank you. Oh, all of those. You’re telling me that we don’t have some sort of dense group there that
Nestor Aparicio 31:39
every time I go with a cop and I kids from other places? The answer I forgot. Hood College, like, like they bring kids from New Jersey, Connecticut, Kentucky, wherever they come here. And how do you keep them? How do you take the the Hopkins from all over the world and say, make a life in Baltimore make a life here?
Bill Cole 32:05
You give them a job and a place that they want to live? Right? So we’re working on that stuff. But you have to like it. Nothing happens overnight. But I do believe that there are leaders in the business community who understand this. I believe that for 20 years, maybe longer, I don’t know. They feel like they tried. And it was met with corruption and resistance and, you know, lots of stuff where they just finally throw their hands up, and then they walk away. And if you met a lot of those people, I had, yeah, if you go to these other places,
Nestor Aparicio 32:54
nobody talks about leaving Minnesota, right? The stories
Bill Cole 32:56
are never about this amazing governmental leader, like the story may become about that. Because they end up striking lightning. And there’s this great governmental leader who steps in and then just pours rocket fuel all over the way we
Nestor Aparicio 33:18
talk about Schaefer because Schaefer made things happen here. Yeah, I mean, for better or worse, and But in every case,
Bill Cole 33:24
it is a highly functional business system, right? That is producing talent, that is producing capital, making investments locally, you know, knocking down barriers for companies to be able to grow. And that those are the seeds that ultimately blossom into these plants. And then they buy the sky box, right? And they start buying the beers. And now all of a sudden, this benefit that you have in those in the form of a professional baseball team is actually providing
Nestor Aparicio 34:06
value. There’s also a pride involved in all of that, too, that the Orioles have lacked here that the Ravens have right but the Orioles have lacked just something the reason we are like what are the reasons you know, go is that matter enough to you?
Bill Cole 34:20
But But the reason we survive is because in our town we have we are taught we grow I don’t know if it’s in the water or what. But like civic pride is a real thing. Like many of our people are currently embarrassed or disappointed or don’t want to admit it because of public safety and some of the, you know, the black eyes that we’ve taken, but reality is like
Nestor Aparicio 34:47
you get George Floyd to do to like
Bill Cole 34:49
No, right that’s what I mean. 100% like that’s that’s the reason why we were there was like they have had their plenty of challenges and how are they recovering? And where do they go? From here, and, and we learned a lot about it. I mean, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 35:04
a, we can’t put your head in the sand. And that’s what’s beautiful about you. And I think that’s what’s beautiful about the concept a little more positive. You know, it’s we’re, we’re talking about at least I mean, it’s the first step. Right, right. And trying to identify, we know, the problem is trying to identify solutions and the people and the end the resources to solve those problems, resources, meaning money, and people all sorts of, and, and, and people working together, you know, it’s, whether it’s the judicial system, and whether it’s, you know, the government and whether it’s jobs and education and public safety. It’s people working together, it’s a lot of people working together, there’s no, there’s no one straw, stirring the drink here. And it’s certainly not John Angelo’s, or Steve Ashati, I guess is my point, you know, and that’s the unfortunate part for me with sports, is that you and I are here stepping up, where’s the step up for what they’ve been given? And I and this is the time to step up, and really is not just to win games, but to to move forward and say, This isn’t Peter Angelos his team anymore? And clearly, they have no ability to do that. They really don’t.
Bill Cole 36:08
I agree with you. I think, my my frustration, and maybe some of the disenfranchising of people comes from we probably don’t talk about all this enough. But we have to get past the point of talking about it, and try stuff. Like we have to actually do stuff.
Nestor Aparicio 36:35
Well, that’s at the heart and place thing, right. That’s a whole segment that I can have, you know, when I have the developer on, I hope to get them on some point here for crabcake. Tour. But like, Bramble right? So yeah, he doesn’t want to be controversial. If he builds houses, he builds races, he makes it up. So whatever it is, but it needs to be discussed.
Bill Cole 36:53
So why is it Yeah, well, sure. But hurry the hell up. Because it’s going to take 15 years to drop something there. And at the end of that 15 years, if you’re wrong, which you people need to be okay with making mistakes, right. But if it takes you 15 years to make a mistake, then that means we have to wait another 15 years to correct it. And that’s whole people’s lifetimes, you know what I mean? So no, get in there, do something now, get something go and find out whether it’s right, find out whether it works, add on, knocked down redo, like we have, we don’t we don’t. This is not just a Baltimore statement. This is a societal statement, right? Like, like, Good God, it takes forever to do anything to do anything around here. And that’s just the fragmentation of the communication. It’s so hard. You want to get everyone to have a seat at the table to give their two cents, right to feel engaged, to buy into the plan to help us make it better
Nestor Aparicio 37:55
to work on their chest like literally right? But it’s so
Bill Cole 37:59
hard that it ends up taking two years, then another two years to get down the road to some kind of does. You know, like,
Nestor Aparicio 38:08
I’ll say this, the CFG Bank Arena thing that went from a headline to a concept. Here, the Eagles and Bruce Springsteen pretty quickly.
Bill Cole 38:15
It did. Why do you? Why is that? Because money came in and people who knew what they were doing, did it. And one other part of that is that a lot of that got to go when I think while we were all dealing with COVID. So it was a little bit that actually took longer than I think we realized. But But yeah, I mean, again, private private enterprise pushes the ball agreed. Sure.
Nestor Aparicio 38:38
All right. Good enough. Bill calls here Call Roofing Gordy energy. I think I’ve done argued with him. We’re gonna sit down, watch the Ravens play here next couple of months and try to figure it offseason. Tell me what you do in the roofing space and in the solar space because I can get you going on solar and we could talk to the sun.
Bill Cole 38:53
Yeah, I mean, all of these things that we’re talking about, like when we build whatever they are, I want to put a roof on. Like, healthy Baltimore Metro, you know, and Roanoke County, Howard County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, DC, whatever, that when those geographical areas are healthy and prospering. You know, people ask us to take care of their roofs. And you know, that’s just what we want to do. And
Nestor Aparicio 39:25
I gotta apologize to you for outing a couple of weeks ago saying that you wanted to put a roof on both stadiums to make him enclosed. I thought that was kind of funny. And I thought it was even funnier that I went down to Texas and it was 75 degrees it gametime was perfectly beautiful. And they closed the roof and they closed the roof. And I’m thinking to myself, what does the weather need to be in order for you to have the roof open? It was almost like an ad for coal roofing is what it was like you know it the other day, by the way. The Chargers played the Cowboys the other night in LA. I’ve been in that stadium. I went there for the Super Bowl. Maybe it was all the cannabis floor. rooting around in the air and the upper deck at that game, but I didn’t even realize it had a roof. Like the day I was there was like, sort of oh, it’s Los Angeles. It’s I think it has a roof. And and I looked it was it was 78 degrees in LA on size I said must be raining. And you know my wife said she’s like they close it further.
Bill Cole 40:21
I assumed that it has a roof because that is actually an interplanetary spaceship that at some point is just what
Nestor Aparicio 40:28
has a roof because some guy like you told me Well, like Dallas. It’s hot. It’s the first comfortable game I’ve ever sat at a Dallas for baseball game. All right, go cold to your Call Roofing 13 energy you can find him. You can usually find them on my coffee cup usually filled with royal farms. Kona blend, I’m accounting sometimes Jamaica Blue Mountain, but mainly Kona guy. Sometimes I like a dark blend as well. We appreciate them pouring that as well. Some fried chicken, crab cake tours sometimes to get you out. Yeah,
Bill Cole 40:55
absolutely. All right. Absolutely. That’d be fun talking
Nestor Aparicio 40:57
about you and me not getting together for a month. They’re worried that you know, maybe maybe Nestor and Pillard so we’re still good. That’s good. So here to argue we’ll try to do it weekly. We schedule them weekly. Now that the baseball things over with maybe we can calm down and get it done. We’re gonna be getting to Maryland crab cakes. Were back out on the road with our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll be giving these away. Our friends will win the nation 866 90 nation as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care, I want to give a big appreciation of Fred security because it’s people like Bill Cole that have been with us for many, many years. One time in turn here in the late 90s. We’ve made it 25 years I had been a little remiss on my 25 stories of glory because I’ve been so baked in the writing column this and doing all this other stuff with Luke and getting on the road. We will begin to count down even further. Beginning this week before we get to Halloween. I promise. It’s still our 25th year after 25 years I can take my time bragging about ourselves. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore good stuff and positive
