Back at the beach for the Maryland Counties Conference, we welcome Tom Perlozzo – yes, he’s Sam’s brother – back from Ocean City to talk tourism, families, the lure and lore of the beach and how Maryland is trying to compete with Virginia Beach year-around for youth sports events and all of the great economic benefits of that happening with the new proposal. Oh, and we didn’t want to discuss the Orioles but we did anyway…

Ocean City is expanding from a seasonal beach destination into a year-round tourism market centered on conventions, large music festivals, and a proposed youth sports complex in Berlin.

Tourism Shift

• Tom said Ocean City is deliberately building a year-round economy rather than relying on a 3-month season.
• He cited major infrastructure and demand drivers already in place: a 250,000-square-foot convention center, about 11,000 hotel rooms, 20,000 short-term rentals, a 150-year-old town brand, and a growing mix of concerts, conventions, and performing arts events.
• Nestor highlighted the visible growth of national hotel brands such as Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt, while Tom said the town still retains its locally run hotel character.

Sports Complex

• Tom described the proposed youth sports complex in Berlin as a tourism “game changer” aimed at family travel, longer stays, and year-round revenue. He said sports tourism is a $200 billion industry and identified Virginia Beach as the main competitor because it has multiple indoor complexes and can still perform well during rainy weekends.
• He said Ocean City is already receiving interest before construction, including a call from an Ohio operator seeking early tournament access after the public announcement.
• Funding and blockers: Tom said the town increased the room tax and dedicated part of it to the project, with a financing concept similar to prior Maryland Stadium Authority support for the convention center. He said the goal is to clear approvals and purchase the property within 45 days, bring the project before the state in November, and move toward construction after approval. Open questions: Will state approval and financing align on schedule? Can officials overcome objections about locating the project in Berlin instead of inside Ocean City?

Event Engine

• Tom said Oceans Calling is still growing: about 55,000 ticketed attendees per day, sold out in roughly 20 minutes, with tickets sold in all 50 states. He added that about 70% of attendees last year had never visited Ocean City before.
• He said music has become a core tourism pillar alongside sports, golf, fishing, and dining, and credited promoter C3. He also said the festival has produced about $500 million in economic benefit for Ocean City and Maryland and is secured under a long-term contract.
• Tom contrasted that success with the weather sensitivity of beach tourism, noting that rain and the postponed Boardwalk Rock event hurt Memorial Day traffic while sports-heavy Virginia Beach performed strongly.

• Ask Mayor during his upcoming appearance about the specific hurdles and timeline for the proposed youth sports complex project in Berlin. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Continue discussing the youth sports complex project with the mayor in a later conversation to clarify its status and next steps. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Ocean City tourism strategy

• Tom said Ocean City wants to be a year-round destination rather than a seasonal beach town.
• Key assets cited: 250,000-square-foot convention center, 11,000 hotel rooms, 20,000 short-term rentals, concerts, performing arts programming, and convention business.
• Nestor noted the growth of national hotel brands and broader economic development.

Proposed sports complex

• Tom said the youth sports complex is planned for Berlin and is intended to attract family travel, tournaments, and longer stays.
• He described sports tourism as a $200 billion market and named Virginia Beach as the leading competitor.
• Current demand signals include early outreach from an Ohio tournament operator before construction has begun.

Funding and approvals

• The town increased the room tax and dedicated part of it to the sports complex.
• Tom said the project is intended to pay for itself through room-tax revenue and a structure similar to Maryland Stadium Authority financing used for the convention center.
• Major hurdles mentioned: engineering, permitting, environmental review, state highway review, state approval, and local concerns about site location.

Music festivals and events

• Tom said Oceans Calling sells out quickly, draws about 55,000 ticketed attendees per day, and reaches all 50 states.
• He said about 70% of attendees last year were first-time Ocean City visitors.
• He also referenced Country Calling, Boardwalk Rock, and the role of promoter C3 in scaling the festival business.

Additional sports and baseball discussion

• Tom said his brother Sam Perlozzo is retired in Tampa, occasionally helping evaluate players in rehab settings.
• Nestor and Tom briefly discussed concerns about the Orioles and possible labor instability affecting future baseball seasons.
• Tom also referenced Ocean City’s longstanding sports ties, including celebrity golf events that previously raised money for youth recreation.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. It is underneath here. Do I have our 28th anniversary? We’re in Ocean City again. It’s like Groundhog Day. Feels like I’m with this guy every once in a while. And Mayor is going to be here. We’re down here at Mako. I’m going to let Tom Palazzo tell you about Mako, also his his famous brother’s background and all the baseball sides of things in our golf relationship. But you know, it’s that time of year where my kid and his wife are like, “Hey, the ocean’s calling, and I mean, the ocean calls 365 days a year for you, and the event has become this rock and roll thing. But summer sells itself down here, and Mako sells itself, and Fourth of July, and Marlin, and all those things. But I’m always amazed, and I tell you this once a year. I make this drive to come down here, just the explosion of people, and that this is not a three-month-a-year sleepy town that I remember from the ’80s.

Tom Perlozzo 0:56
That’s correct. I mean, it’s you know we strategically want to become a year-round community. We’ve got some great things happening all year round, and you know, we you know again we used to be last one out turned the lights out, but now it’s it’s like a hidden gem out there. We’d like to say you know the off season is just bustling. You know, as you mentioned, we have two, three great concerts: Oceans calling, country calling, boardwalk rock. The performing arts center here in the convention center is crazy. We’ve got great events like Bill Ingle coming up. You know, we’ve got a Toby Keith tribute. I’ve got Terry Feder coming. I got Broadway shows with Mistout Fire, the Music Man. So you can find something to do here. And you know again, there’s you know the convention center is kind of the hub. We’re here today for Mako, Maryland Association of Counties.

Nestor Aparicio 1:48
Now, what is this? So people don’t you know this is the kind of thing they could do this at Rocky Gap. They could do this downtown Baltimore at the convention center. They could do it in Annapolis, right? But it’s a summer event that’s here that is like a calling for people who work in the state, right?

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Tom Perlozzo 2:04
Correct. I mean, you know, Ocean City’s, you know, really Maryland’s crown jewel, second largest city in Maryland during the summer, and it’s just the perfect location. We have a beautiful building, 250,000 square feet. You know, we got 11,000 hotel rooms, 20,000 short-term rentals. You know, boardwalk that’s been here. You know, the town just celebrated its 150 years. So, you know, we have a lot of nostalgia. You know, people, you know, used to be the rite of passage as a Marylander. Make sure you came to the beach.

Nestor Aparicio 2:33
Guilty as charged. Yes, that was me.

Tom Perlozzo 2:35
So, you know, and I, I’m the

Nestor Aparicio 2:37
only guy in my my friends who never was arrested here for drinking beer on the beach.

Tom Perlozzo 2:40
You did good. Did really well. It’s not that I

Nestor Aparicio 2:42
didn’t drink on the beach. I’m just saying, but you know, you say rite of passage and all of that. And you mentioned hotel rooms, and I just got to say, I drove in today because I spent the night in Salisbury. I went to Dewey to see the Bodines. I was here. I saw you in the afternoon. I went to three or four places, and incidentally, my cousin from Delaware, from he lives up in Newark, Delaware. Saw me out of his condo window last night, and I’m getting. So I have my cousin is on the beach here, whom I haven’t seen in a couple of years, yelling at me out on the coastal highway. So you got friends everywhere in Ocean City. Everybody comes together down here, but hotels last night. I had two dudes that ran like the Hilton, and they came to me and they told me they’ve been sold out 77 nights in a row because the guy with me said I need a room tomorrow. We don’t have any rooms, and I’m like, and I’m thinking to myself back when I was a young man, and I would come down here and I’d stay at the Spanish Main or the Breakers or the Shoreham or the Madison Beach mode. I can tell you all the places I stayed, or the three cheers where I had a condo in Somers on 28th Street. All these places, we didn’t have a Marriott to stay at or Holiday Inn. There was no Quality Inn. Might have been a Ramada here at some point. I remember when Princess Royale came in and the Bayside came in. There were no Hyatt places. None of those chains and brands wanted to be here. And as I understood it, and I was a journalist, and I almost came down here in the 80s. I was almost a Baltimore Sun summer reporter. They were smart not to send me down here in 1991. But damn, I wanted that job, and I tried hard to get that gig to live down here and be the beat reporter, covering fish back in the day. Yeah, but it seemed to me even when I would open like the old mobile travel guides because we didn’t have the internet or anything. This was a place that was unattractive to those kind of businesses because it did shut down. It really was like, how is Holiday Inn going to operate down here? How they going to have beds, people in them, maids, the things that like change the because they’re all family businesses down here, right? Oh yeah, that is the thing for me. As I sat at a red light today and said, “Oh my God, there’s another Marriott property. There’s another that there’s there’s another height. I don’t even how many of those there are now. A couple dozen probably, but that is just such an. Economic sign to me of what the growth here’s been, and I’ll talk to the mayor about that as well. But that really is something that you’ve seen happen since you were hitting me on Rum Point and all the golf courses up on the north side 30 years ago, right?

Tom Perlozzo 5:12
Absolutely. I mean, you look, you know, the Brand Hotel is certainly a significant factor. People recognize, you know, the importance of you know the quality of stay that Ocean City delivers. So, yeah, we’ve had we’ve had a lot of brand hotels move in, and you know the the beauty about some of those things is you know we we are always known as you know the boutique you know hotel where where the locals would manage the hotel properties, and again they’ve been approached by the brands, they’ve changed overs. They’ve redeveloped. You know, Hilton is a perfect example, brand new. You know, there’s you know just a ton of properties up and down the beach that you know are taking advantage of the you know the I guess the marketing of the brand. But we still have the mom and pops. I like to say 100% And you know we’re still Ocean Sea. We’re able to keep our, you know, our vibe. I’ll call it or our brand intact. And you know, well,

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Nestor Aparicio 6:08
the sun’s out today, and that’s part of the logo, right?

Tom Perlozzo 6:10
Absolutely. I mean, that’s you know, we’re somewhere to start those right there. That’s it. I want one

Nestor Aparicio 6:15
of those. That’s that’s good. Maybe

Tom Perlozzo 6:16
that one. I told

Nestor Aparicio 6:17
you. So your rebrand. We did that last year. Tom Parazo’s here. Don’t call him Sam. What is your official title? Because I don’t want to get it wrong.

Tom Perlozzo 6:25
Now I’m the director of tourism and business development.

Nestor Aparicio 6:27
Well, I got the right guide here. If we’re talking about tourism and development, all right. Headlines. I mean, I did just for anybody listening. We’re at Mako. If you want to see him and I last year talk about the roots of getting the concerts here, or you want to see the mayor and I talk about windmills every year? There seems to be an issue, but the issue you and I have talked about from the minute-I mean, probably the minute I knew you 20 or 30 years ago-was you love sports. Sports is your background. Your brother was the is Sam Perlazzo, and he’s doing well, and you can give a little update on him as well. But you came down here under the guise of your Prolazo is like Aparicio. It means baseball. I mean, it means sports, right? Like literally. And from that time, you have been saying to me, and look, I saw the box lacrosse and the soccer down here, and I told you about playing. I’ve had when Fish was the mayor, and before that, playing softball down on Fifth Street under the tower. Sports has been a part of this, but this is the thing where Disney World and other places are luring little leagues, lacrosse groups, soccer groups. But downtown Baltimore gets the volleyball kids into the the convention center. That is that’s always made sense to me. You know that you guys really want to make this. Now we talked about the hotels. Let’s get these tournaments. Let’s have the state tournament for whatever the nationals or the regionals in Ocean City, Maryland. But you need a facility for that, right? Without

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Tom Perlozzo 7:49
a doubt. I mean, we’re built for it. You know, the playcation, I’ll call it. You know, where families come down. I mean, that’s that’s our target audience. You know, we need moms and pops and kids and grand dad and grandmom to come down and watch the kids, and they’re not

Nestor Aparicio 8:02
three sport kids, but I’ll get to that. But whatever, but that is part of the specialty is that these there ain’t travel anymore, and in a league teams and whatever. There’s where are we going

Speaker 1 8:13
to travel

Nestor Aparicio 8:14
and stay in a hotel and try to get our kid a scholarship, right? That’s sort of where this all is,

Tom Perlozzo 8:19
right? Exactly. I mean, you look. I mean, it’s a $200 billion business. You know that that’s that’s the sports ETA put that out, and you know, you know, Persian City take advantage again. We’re just built for it with the hotels, the short term rentals, the restaurants, and our beautiful beach. You know, you you you know, we can host. I mean, we we we have about 10 weeks in this building. Disney World

Nestor Aparicio 8:44
don’t even have a beach. I think

Tom Perlozzo 8:46
right.

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Nestor Aparicio 8:47
Be honest with me. You looked at these concerts and what was going on in beach areas down on on the Gulf of Mexico and different things that were happening to say what are what’s happening in other places. Huntington Beach does one. Yeah, just these festival concerts, the sports thing. Who owns that? Because I think to myself, Disney, and then I think of places I’ve been like Dollywood or the Missouri, the the Ozarks, and those kinds of places that are mountain resorts, or even I said Rocky Gap, or even Deep Creek. But who has these complexes? Other, I’ve been at Disney World for sure. Myrtle Beach. I’m trying to think of other places that are doing a good job. That you’re like, hey, they did that in 2009, and they’re getting this many rooms out of it. Because I know this is we’re not throwing darts here. This is a sophisticated thing you’re doing.

Tom Perlozzo 9:43
Well, we’ve done you know our due diligence as far as you know checking our competitors, but you mentioned Myrtle Beach, but our biggest competitor in in the sports industry would be Virginia Beach.

Nestor Aparicio 9:52
Virginia Beach, I didn’t know that. Okay, very very

Tom Perlozzo 9:54
large indoor complex. They’ve got about five different complexes. It is absolutely. Crazy, and you know I like to use this as an example. You know, Memorial Day this year. You know, we we had a hiccup with the concert. We had to postpone the Boardwalk Rock, and then Memorial Day weekend, it rained all weekend. You know, Ocean City is predicated on the sun. Sits over here. Yeah, and if no sun, no visitors, especially that time of year, but in the sports world, you know, we looked at Virginia Beach. It rained all weekend down here. They crushed it because they crushed it. They had 10,000 athletes there and families, and they were you know gutting it out. What

Nestor Aparicio 10:34
were they doing? What was the sport?

Tom Perlozzo 10:35
It was lacrosse, soccer. They were inside playing basketball. Beach, beach, beach,

Nestor Aparicio 10:39
beach, beach, beach. Airport to get in there, right? To

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Tom Perlozzo 10:42
get in, yeah. We’re like, hey, you know, it’s been discussed well over a decade here. I’ve been

Nestor Aparicio 10:49
talking about it with you since the minute we started talking, right? Because it’s your jam, and look, we’re all getting older. We all want to put a signature on something, you know. I just reinvented myself here, 28 years in. Well, thank you. I think you want to put a signature on something. If if you’re alive and I’m alive and you’re over there for a ribbon cutting and a and a shovel and a this and a that and then to see it come to life, those are the beautiful things about like even seeing Camden Yards come to life. Whatever the next bridge is going to be, and I’ll be talking about all of that, it would be a monumental achievement, I think, for you and and and for Rick and for just this piece of administration to say this would be your little gateway arch that you leave behind a little bit, right? Yeah,

Tom Perlozzo 11:33
there’s no question. I mean, look, this is a game changer for tourism in Ocean City. You know, look, you know, we’ll always be. You know, without something like this in in the arsenal of of tourism, you know we need product.

Nestor Aparicio 11:46
What can you do now? What somebody comes and says, what what kinds of sports things are you capable of doing now? And then how would that explode?

Tom Perlozzo 11:56
You know, look, we’ve got again. You can do anything A to Z, but look, all the outdoor sports you can think of, all the indoor sports you can. You have

Nestor Aparicio 12:05
softball diamonds here. You have volleyball. You have lacrosse. We have all that. We

Tom Perlozzo 12:08
will attract national events here that bring hundreds of 1000s of people. I mean, we we just announced this. I’ll just give you an example. The magazine. We just announced this the other day, and yesterday I have a phone call from a an operator out in Ohio wanting to get on the list and book the tournaments before anybody else does. We haven’t even put a shovel in the room. That’s the kind of impact that Ocean City is going to have. It is going to be in the sports world. The I’d rather

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Nestor Aparicio 12:39
come to Ocean City than Virginia Beach. I’m just saying, like you know, right? Pack the kids up. We’re gonna take them somewhere. I mean, it’s not hard to say. Oh, the event’s down at the beach in June. Okay, let’s take the kid. Let’s go. Absolutely. You know, mom goes to the beach with the other kids, and we dropped it. They did whatever we got to do, and

Tom Perlozzo 12:56
you know, they stay longer. They eat at restaurants. They enjoy our amusements. You know, it is a high-value consumer. Either way you want to look. Where’s

Nestor Aparicio 13:04
this going to be in a perfect world? What happens here? Where we put in a

Tom Perlozzo 13:08
perfect world, we’re putting it in Berlin, and hopefully in the next 45 days, everything’s passed. We purchase the property, and you know, state of Maryland gets behind it, and then six, eight months later, we’re putting the show.

Nestor Aparicio 13:21
What needs to happen? And I’ll ask the mayor aside when he’s here. But where are the dominoes? Where are the hurdles? I mean, let’s be honest. This isn’t a new thing we’re talking about. I saw it get into the news on my timeline, literally over coffee this morning. I’m like, good day to have Palazzo on to talk about this because it does feel closer than conceptual in the way that we’ve talked about in previous years. What’s happened over the last year to get this to the magic point where, like, you really feel like next year we might have a shovel in the ground?

Tom Perlozzo 13:54
Yeah, we, you know, look, we started out. Mayor and council had the vision that you know this was a great project for us to do. So what they did is they took steps in you know securing funding. That was the very first thing. They increased the room tax and dedicated a portion of that to go toward the building of a sports complex, which is really. So you started putting

Nestor Aparicio 14:14
money in the piggy bank.

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Tom Perlozzo 14:14
They started putting money.

Nestor Aparicio 14:15
Oh, I love that. All right, good. All right.

Tom Perlozzo 14:17
And now

Nestor Aparicio 14:18
Republicans running the place down here. They’re trying. You know, we’re different. It’s fine, but having the money, like, where’s the money coming from, right? And

Tom Perlozzo 14:25
that’s that’s really the big hiccup that people you know are concerned about. But this is not a tax dollar, or you know, a taxpayer-funded project. This is going to pay for itself through the room tax, as well as an opportunity, just like we did here at the convention center, through the Maryland Stadium Authority, so it’ll be you know our goal is it’s a true investment. It’s a true investment for the state and the city, so then we you know there’s a ton of hurdles as we go through all the engineering, all the permitting, all the environmental stuff, state highway, you know everything A to Z. But you know that’s typical for every project. You know, what we see in the beginning is all the naysayers. We don’t like where it’s at. Stay in Ocean City. You know, you know why? You know, impossible

Nestor Aparicio 15:10
to build it on this peninsula.

Tom Perlozzo 15:11
It’s impossible. We don’t have 190 acres. We don’t have. You know, we’re lucky to have two acres available. Yeah, yeah,

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Nestor Aparicio 15:17
right.

Tom Perlozzo 15:17
You know, and if it’s available, I can assure you, it’s going to have some houses. And

Nestor Aparicio 15:20
you want to make it grand, right? Oh yeah, we want. And listen, for Ocean City, and I’ll say this to the mayor: like, I’m not partial to any county or Salisbury or Eastern or Cambridge or even Maryland or America. It’s just sort of like do the right thing, and if the right thing is let’s go Berlin, growing Berlin’s good for Ocean City too, right? It’s good for the county. It’s good for the state. You know, there’s always how are we going to grow this other than up?

Tom Perlozzo 15:45
That’s correct. I mean, look, you know, Ocean City. Ocean City is the crown jewel for Worcester County. Look, 60 cents of every tax dollar comes out of Ocean City. That supports Berlin, Snow Hill, Pokemon. Look, we without Ocean City as the engine, I keep

Nestor Aparicio 16:04
saying that about Baltimore, but that’s

Tom Perlozzo 16:06
okay for the state. I mean, that is true, though. It’s absolutely true, and again, we we want Berlin to prosper. We want Snow Hill to prosper. We want Pokemon to prosper. But the only way to do things like this is to invest, and we’re investing in ourselves. We got to generate the money to be able to do the things that we want to do in town here. You know, we’re trying to underground utilities at Baltimore Avenue. Well, you know, we got to figure out a way to fund it. And the best thing about this is that you know, 60% of the room tax goes to the general fund to support the police for public safety, roads for public works. So you know it’s it. Everything goes in hands and hand in hand. But you know tourism is really a revenue generator, and this particular product can generate lots of revenue for the town. Year round, year

Nestor Aparicio 16:52
round, absolutely. Tom Palazzo’s here. He runs things down here at the beach. We’ll have the mayor on at some point. I got Bill Henry coming on. I have Senator Chris Van Hollen coming on. I and and oh, the mayor of Frederick, Michael O’Connor’s coming on. I think Emily Keller’s coming on to talk about she’s our drug czar in the states. We got a lot of things, a lot of issues, but nothing that’s more near and dear to my heart. It’s my 35th anniversary of being on the radios coming up later this year, and I’ve sort of broken the news that I’m gonna. Part of this is because baseball might not play next year. I’m going to feature my 35 favorite rock and roll everything stories, concerts, interviews. So it’s going to be a big year next year. You had the boardwalk thing. You’ve had country things, but but Ocean’s Calling is your Super Bowl now. Like really a signature event. I look. I know Michael Jordan visited everyone down here last week because I saw Michael Jordan everywhere. Yeah,

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Tom Perlozzo 17:46
he was everywhere.

Nestor Aparicio 17:47
Was he really here?

Tom Perlozzo 17:48
He was here. He did come here. All that what you saw was AI. He’s pretty private.

Nestor Aparicio 17:53
I have a feeling he is. Yes. So, but nonetheless, but talk about fun. I mean, in on the joke. Michael Jordan’s been everywhere on the beach, right? Because he’s here. Other than that, other than my, he’s a little over the hill anyway. Michael Jordan’s got to jump the shark, you know. But Ocean’s Calling hasn’t, and is it still ascending as you see it? I mean, it’s had weather. It’s had. It’s had all sorts of ish that’s tried to screw it up, but you can’t screw it up when the bands come in and it’s as good as it is. And every year I’m looking at it and saying, “All right, I’m going to go on Friday. You know, you know. I hope the weather holds up, but it’s it’s

Tom Perlozzo 18:31
definitely ascending. Look, when you put your tickets on sale 20 minutes later, you’re sold out. 100,000, like it’s literally like that. Well, it’s 55,000 people a day ticketed. Okay, and plus plus plus. But you know, the beauty about that again, it’s music has been one of those pillars for tourism. You know, just like our niche sports, golf, fishing, etc. or dining. But the music world, I mean, it’s crazy. We sold tickets in all 50 states, and I told him it was going to

Nestor Aparicio 19:02
work. I did. I mean, I remember you put it on. I’m like, I was like to the moon. You’re telling me OAR Mark Alberz, and you know he came down, and we’re going to do this once. Try to pull it off, and then the weather scrooge, and you still had really built something out of this that I think you want more, right? You want three or four of these, right? Absolutely. We

Tom Perlozzo 19:23
have three right now, and you know we’re always exploring some other options. But but those music events, I mean, they’re national. You know, acts like Dave Matthews, 21 Pilots. You got Gwen Stefani coming for that event. But look, you know, they tweet. They they use their social media like you do. I mean, they say they’re in

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Nestor Aparicio 19:44
Ocean City, Maryland. Right, you know

Tom Perlozzo 19:46
it. And you know what we hope is, in most of the cases, 70% of those visitors that attended last year never been to Ocean City.

Nestor Aparicio 19:53
Really.

Tom Perlozzo 19:54
So you know, we’re we our deal is really

Tom Perlozzo 19:56
you get them here for a concert. They see how beautiful the beach is and what. They’ll come back a week early next year. They’re coming back a week earlier. They’re coming for a summer vacation. I love this little town. I mean, California, Washington, Idaho. I mean, think about it. It’s absolutely crazy. I mean, and thank goodness we have a great promoter in C3. But those followers that that love Dave Matthews as an example, they will travel to grow. I

Nestor Aparicio 20:21
love Brian Adams. I flew to Montevideo to see him. I saw AC/DC in Santiago, Chile. I am a music traveler at this point, which is why I’m doing this rock thing. Which is why it really appeals to me because making memories. I drove up to Dewey Beach last night to see the Bodines, right? So like I love music that much. I’ve walked out of a party with free booze, secrets, and fingers to drive literally to drive up, and and I’m not here to promote anything in Delaware or their tax free this or that, and I’ll get Leonard Raskin and all that. But they’ve built that Freeman Arts Pavilion up there where Stix is coming in a couple of weeks. I see people up there. I’ve seen your former mayor, whom I gave a hug to. I had two mayors in Ocean City on the right and the left of me last night, and he goes up there and tweets and puts pictures up. the The fact that this peninsula has become a music place now, that was not the case. I mean, I married my wife 20 years ago. She’s got like a little merryweather up in the mountains by Laconia, and it’s called Meadow Brook. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a merry weather in the middle of New Hampshire, and I’ve also I thought to myself, well, this is a beach. It’s sort of their beach. It’s the it’s the lakes and like all the mountains and all that. And I’m thinking, well, the Eastern Shore never had those kind of concerts the last 25 years. That was more for DC and Nissan Pavilion or or Philly or Baltimore. Now that the shore has established festivals, a festival place, concerts. I remember being here with sticks the first time you guys sort of tried to pull it off seven or eight years ago. Years

Tom Perlozzo 21:52
ago, that’s correct. And

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Nestor Aparicio 21:53
that was like that was a major undertaking, right?

Tom Perlozzo 21:56
It was. I mean, you know, look, you know, all the skeptics out there-they can tell you all the reasons why we can’t do it, but none of them can tell you why, and that’s when they robbed me in. I said, “Look, I’m I’m going to be that positive guy. We’re going to do it. You know, when did you think it?

Nestor Aparicio 22:09
When did you think it was a good idea? I mean, did you fly down to Alabama or any of these Florida? Because sticks does these things on the beach down in. I mean, they do them in Cancun now. They don’t want boats. I mean, these festivals-they’re trying to get me on a boat for an ’80s thing, and I’m like, “You got the. I don’t do boats. Boats

Tom Perlozzo 22:28
are. That’s a boats

Nestor Aparicio 22:29
are after Jaws, and it’s one way. No offense to boats, but like, I want to be on the beach. But I’ve seen these things grow. Did you attend one? I mean, you could crunch the numbers and say police and parking and security and all of those issues, and you have the beach for it, but I think until you’ve seen it, it’s hard to bet on

Tom Perlozzo 22:48
it. Yeah, I mean, look, we from the tourism perspective, we knew that music was a driver, but we did. We we researched a company which happened to be see-through, and we went to Florida to check the event out in Tampa. Tampa, okay. And we were like blown away by the volume of people, the level of professionalism the you know the promoter put together, and just the buzz. You know, it feels like

Nestor Aparicio 23:19
something’s going on, right? Something’s happening. Yeah,

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Tom Perlozzo 23:21
everywhere you walk in town, I’m like

Nestor Aparicio 23:23
shirts.

Tom Perlozzo 23:23
You know, shirts and church was everywhere. I’m thinking

Nestor Aparicio 23:26
it’s almost like BTS in Baltimore the other day. Get them down to the beach.

Tom Perlozzo 23:31
That’s right. So we’re like, why can’t we do this here? Again, that was the point. You know, they said, well, you can’t do it on the beach. No, you can’t enclose the boardwalk. No, you won’t get a liquor license. You know what? We did it all, and it’s been the best thing that’s happened to Ocean City in the long run.

Nestor Aparicio 23:48
Do detractors come up to you at your advanced age from 1015, years ago, the old timers who didn’t want it or whatever, and say you were right? No, no, they

Tom Perlozzo 23:59
have short-term memory. It’s all their idea, man.

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Nestor Aparicio 24:01
Oh, okay, that’s fair enough. Fair enough. I, I mean, I, I will hear that. But so tell me why it didn’t happen before. It just, it, it, it is, it is a big idea, and it is a lot of work. And there is a point where you, there is a point for me, and I’m not the conservative one here, but I would say, you know what, get the freaking sun and the beach and the boats, and that’s enough. That you know what I mean. That should be enough to get. We got pools, family, boardwalk. That should be enough. We should need to do more, but that’s not that’s not reality. That that is too conservative. I think for what, for especially when you’re trying to drive the tax base and grow things, you you have to be a little bold, and I think with that beach there, you’ve taken a shot on something that, if you take it away now, you couldn’t. You couldn’t. You can’t, right?

Tom Perlozzo 24:51
It’s $500 million of economic benefit to Ocean City and the state of Maryland. It’s not going anywhere. We’re going to be. I love that seed. They were trying to keep it, but you know, look. That was

Nestor Aparicio 25:02
five years ago, five minutes ago. You’re now just trying to pull it off once, and now you’re like, it’s here forever. And I’m like,

Tom Perlozzo 25:08
we’ve got a long-term contract with with the promoter, and we got some things up our sleeves. Stones, yeah, yeah, Elvis, Elvis, yeah. But look, I can tell you, you know, it changes hard, especially down here on Eastern Shore. You know, we’re small community. You know, everyone has an opinion, and you know we we needed some trust. And I think basically that’s what’s happened. We pulled off one concert. We said, look, we want to do another, and they said, okay. You know, business community got behind it. You know, they could actually see the numbers, even though we visited New Jersey, we went to, you know, down to Tampa to see the concerts. We’ve seen all this. We’ve shown them video. I had to take an entourage down to Tampa. You know, police, fire, EMS, special events. It was crazy. But can you get me in on Friday? That’s

Nestor Aparicio 26:00
all. I’m just looking at the. I got the roster here, and I want to promote the real event.

Tom Perlozzo 26:04
All you gotta do is let me know.

Nestor Aparicio 26:05
Dave Matthews, band, Hootie and the Blowfish, Hooty’s. There’s my guys. There’s my guys. Ludacris, Luda, O A R, Yellowcart, Shaggy, Liz Fair, Everlast, Gavin DeGraw. I don’t want to be better than Ezra. Sons of Legion, KT, Tunstall, and then on Saturday, 21 Pilots, Gwen Stefani, Goo Goo Dolls. My wife’s going to want to be at that 1/3. Eye Blind, all time low, Baltimore’s own 311. Violent Femmes. Why can’t I get? Just want to get Dashboard Confessional, Corinne Bay Rayleigh, Woo, Bailey Wright. Excuse me, Everclear, Dishwala, and then Sunday, Mumford and Sons Matchbox 20, Clamp My Morning Jacket, the Head, Heart, and Susanna Hoffs. Look at this special set by OAR and Friends. Oh yeah, Robert Irvine’s going to be here cooking food, right? Jason Biggs from American Pie.

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Tom Perlozzo 26:57
Yep.

Nestor Aparicio 26:57
Oceans Calling festival.com. It’s right here in Ocean City, Maryland, September 25th, 26th, 27th. And if you don’t know about Ocean’s Calling, call my kid. He’ll tell you all about it. He loves his favorite

Tom Perlozzo 27:09
festival. Yeah, it’s it’s again, it’s an amazing festival. And then you know, look, three days, four days later, don’t you call? You know where we got? I could have spit all those bands out. Aprilton. Oh yeah, I’m not going to promote that. You don’t need help with that. Is it

Nestor Aparicio 27:23
country calling?

Tom Perlozzo 27:24
Yeah, country calling.

Nestor Aparicio 27:26
This tells you about my country. It never shows up. It never shows up my timeline. I didn’t even know. Like I sort of know it exists now that I’m sitting next to you and I’m.

Tom Perlozzo 27:35
Well, the beauty is, you know, we put the infrastructure down. It

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Nestor Aparicio 27:37
existed a minute ago. Yeah. Country calling is that what’s called country? Okay, all right, country calling festival. I want to get the whole lineup for. Is Morgan Walling going to be here? That’s all I want to know.

Tom Perlozzo 27:48
We have the next best, Chris Stapleton.

Nestor Aparicio 27:50
Country call. I like him.

Tom Perlozzo 27:52
He Stapleton’s

Nestor Aparicio 27:53
awesome. I’m on the Tennessee whiskey thing.

Tom Perlozzo 27:54
We got Lanie Wilson,

Nestor Aparicio 27:55
Rascal Flatts. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. All right, Dirks Bentley. I see all this here, Lanny Wilson, Miranda Lambert. I’ve heard of her. So I’ve even heard of these these guys. You you know this is a real thing. It’s

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Tom Perlozzo 28:07
a real thing. It’s it’s huge. So I

Nestor Aparicio 28:09
was out in Vegas for one of those, and all the hats, and I thought it was in that. It’s gonna look like Nashville down here for a weekend, right?

Tom Perlozzo 28:14
It’s like Bike Week, man. They come dressed up. First

Nestor Aparicio 28:16
week October is that what it

Tom Perlozzo 28:17
is? Yeah, first weekend of October. Yeah, it’s really really good. Two days this year,

Nestor Aparicio 28:21
I’m busy that weekend. Not with a real baseball. Maybe

Tom Perlozzo 28:25
we wish. Yay! We wish. Can I

8

Nestor Aparicio 28:27
talk a little baseball? Yeah, let’s

Tom Perlozzo 28:28
talk baseball. All right,

Nestor Aparicio 28:30
let’s talk baseball.

Tom Perlozzo 28:31
Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 28:31
How you feeling?

Tom Perlozzo 28:32
I don’t feel good. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio 28:33
feel. And that’s not just because what they did to your brother. Yeah. How’s your brother?

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Tom Perlozzo 28:39
He’s doing great. You know, he’s in Tampa. Who’s

Nestor Aparicio 28:42
working?

Tom Perlozzo 28:42
Off and on. He does. He does like rehab, but he’s he’s.

Nestor Aparicio 28:46
But he’s not working for a team. He’s not working for a team. He’s not scouting. They’ll call

Tom Perlozzo 28:49
him and say, “Look, I need to. Can you put this guy through the paces? What do you think about this kid? You know, he he’ll do that from time to time. But you know, he’s enjoying retirement, and you know, we kind of giggle. You know, we talk all the time and talk about the Orioles, and because he’s getting a little bit of that, and the other teams. And look, you got to make hay in August. There’s no question to get to that wild card. It’s a big

Nestor Aparicio 29:10
week, man. It’s tamping Yankees. This is big.

Tom Perlozzo 29:12
If

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Nestor Aparicio 29:13
you want to make hay, this is it.

Tom Perlozzo 29:15
This is it. So that’s what he’s always said. He’s kind of trying to figure out what the heck’s going on with the O’s like you and I, but I’m been pretty disappointed. But you know, I’m an Oriole fan, and it’s hard. You know, I can complain like everybody else. You know what I mean? But I, I still watch them. You know, I love Jackson Holiday. I just hate reading stuff that he’s trade baiting. Rushman, Rushman. I was pissed that he went to Boston. What is going on?

Nestor Aparicio 29:41
Well, I think part of that is the labor thing. You know, getting back to my rock in 35 years, and you’re like, are we going to have baseball? Can I plan for Sarasota next year? And I don’t think I haven’t met him. Listen, I’ve had Buster Allen League, Tim Kirchen. I’ve had all these people on the show in the last three weeks. I was at the All-Star Game in Philly. I, I. I think they’re preparing to think like, let’s get a bunch of minor leaguers and let them play next year, and that’ll make our team better in 28. And I don’t want to say they’re sailing off 27, but the owner’s hiding, talking about he’s embarrassed. He thinks he’s embarrassed. How do you think all of us feel? So, and I talk about it every day of my life, Tom. I mean, it’s the basis of my business. Luke’s at and Ravens training camp right now. I’d love to have a two-sport problem. We don’t have 35 years of me doing radio. I haven’t had that problem in October. It’s more of a punchline, and football’s ramping up. And in this next 10 days, they go two and eight. You know, it’s no one. We won’t be watching in September. It’ll be on to something. That’s correct. May help Ocean’s Calling as well. Tom Palaz is here. So listen, man. I love the little button. I want one of those. I want to like promote the beach. All the. I never bother you for Ocean’s calling tickets, even though my son asked me to. The only one to bother you for. I got to get Sammy’s number because I want to get him on. I just want. I want to talk some baseball. I can definitely

Tom Perlozzo 30:56
do that. He’s. You know. I tell you, he’s still sharp as a tack, and you know, I keep bugging him like Sam. Yeah, let’s get back in. Let’s get back. Is he golfing? He is golfing. Yeah. All right. He he can hit it all over the map. He’s got the longest. When’s the last time you

Nestor Aparicio 31:10
guys went out as brothers from Cumberland who love each other, who love the beach, who love golf? When’s the last time you hit a golf ball with your brother?

Tom Perlozzo 31:17
Last year.

Nestor Aparicio 31:18
All right.

8

Tom Perlozzo 31:18
Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 31:19
That’s special though, right?

Tom Perlozzo 31:20
Oh yeah. I mean, look, you know, I have two brothers. You know, I was going to mention when you were talking about the strike and things that may come up. My my oldest brother was with the Padres at that point. Nick, he was a first baseman. First strike came along,

Nestor Aparicio 31:32
81.

Tom Perlozzo 31:33
Yeah, that was it. Yeah, he ended up being a teacher. You know, had six years in, and that’s when you say we’re a baseball family. Yeah, we were basically.

Nestor Aparicio 31:41
My last name’s Aparicio, bro. I can make it under. I know that guy. Like, yeah, like I, I, I can’t shake it. You know, I’m even wearing purple today for some. It’s more lavender.

Tom Perlozzo 31:50
I thought about wearing purple today too, but I was, you know,

8

Nestor Aparicio 31:54
got all those Porates fans down here and Stillers fans.

Tom Perlozzo 31:57
No, no Stillers. That’s they’re at Buxy Salted Dollar

Nestor Aparicio 32:00
in Cumberland when you were a kid, was it? I mean, Clemente, well, you like Clemente Stargell. You had Brooks and Frank. I mean, you’re sort of my age, like of that of that era. Baseball was ubiquitous, but like I grew up in East Baltimore, being able to go to 33rd Street, I have all those memories. I think when you’re out in the mountain, it’s amazing to me how baseball comes to things, and even when I drove through, what’s the little town out there where we have a Hall of Famer? Is it Lefty Grove?

Tom Perlozzo 32:30
Lefty Grove, from

Nestor Aparicio 32:31
the Lona County. Yeah, we had the billionaire in the lottery for my lottery partners. There’s a little park there. I mean, there’s a real baseball thing out in your part of the world that when I have Leo on, I mean Leo Mazzoni and your brother and you, John

Tom Perlozzo 32:46
Cruck was from that area. He, you know, they love him in Philly. Are great friends. I mean, they have Bobby Robertson with the. Have you drank

Nestor Aparicio 32:56
a beer with John Cruck in your life? Of course,

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Tom Perlozzo 32:58
play golf together.

Nestor Aparicio 32:58
I just want to touch you. Have anybody drank a beer with John Cruck, somebody-he’s-he’s

Tom Perlozzo 33:03
really a terrific human being.

Nestor Aparicio 33:05
I so I have a John Cruck story, right? He ambles in 1993 All-Star Game. So that was a day when I met Michael Jordan. That was a day when Barry Bond signed an autograph and was kind to me, and I sat with Tony Gwynn. I have a picture of Bill Murray in a Cubs outfit that day. It was the day Michael Jordan signed to play baseball. If you remember, on that day I was doing bumpers, 1993. So I’m in my second year of radio, third second year Camden Yard, second year radio, and I’m waiting when all these Hall of Famers come in. Dutch Dalton’s on that, you know. I’m trying to think. All the Ken Griffey was there, hit the home run right. McGuire was an A at the time, and Cruck comes in looking hungover with a bag. Look, he’s you know coming in, and they they went to the World Series that year, ’93. So they were like real. They had five All Stars on that team. I think Hollins might been been on that team. Maybe Dyches Drive, but either way, he comes in, and I had a paper that was hi. My name is Tom Perlazzo, and you’re listening to the Budweiser Sports Forum with Nasty Nestor Aparicio. Give him a call at 410-481-1570 and add something to the show. And Nestor, be nice to me. There was always like a line to give me a kick in the balls on the way out, right? And I’d write it. Bill Murray did this for me. Everybody, so I gave it to Cruck, and Crux say, “Man, I can’t read. I swear, he did it for me, though. He did it for me, so I have it. I’ll bust those out. But John Cruck gave, but I never had a beer with John Cruck, so that to me that would be. He was

Tom Perlozzo 34:35
something. Now look, you know, my brother and I, I can tell you, we did for 15 years. We did a celebrity golf tournament here in Ocean City to raise money for the kids. I know. I remember this. I was the director of recreation and parks at the time. A lot of

Nestor Aparicio 34:47
Orioles guys would come down, right? Dempsey Tippie, all those guys, right? Yeah, they

Tom Perlozzo 34:51
were regular Singleton. It was just amazing. Krupp, you know, would come. John and I against. We get Leo Mazzoni. You know, we did so much. And then Leo would

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Nestor Aparicio 34:59
call. Couple of Braves, a couple Braves. Yeah, Smoltz might come and play because he might play, right?

Tom Perlozzo 35:04
Sam’s with Cincinnati. I got Tom Browning. I got Schilling. I got all these guys down here that were, you know,

Nestor Aparicio 35:10
Palecki lives down here, right? Yeah,

Tom Perlozzo 35:13
you know, you don’t realize who these people were. I mean, we did, but it would sell out every year.

Nestor Aparicio 35:18
Bobby DePaul ran the Redskins and the Bears. He’s running up on 81st street.

Tom Perlozzo 35:21
That’s right. Yeah, yeah. So you know, it was great. We we raised money for the kids. We we needed little league uniforms. They had a great time. We put them up. It was right at the end of the season. We’d always sit there and say, “Who’s going to make it based on the postseason? You know, we’re like, “Oh God, our events in like October. You know, if if the Orioles go to the World Series, or imagine how good this golf tournament’s going to be

Nestor Aparicio 35:44
when you have the sports complex with its Super Bowl, and you bring a golf tournament down here, give the dad something

8

Tom Perlozzo 35:50
to do. Oh yeah, yeah. We’re we’re going to kill. How

Nestor Aparicio 35:52
many golf courses are down here within 15 minutes? Where I’m sitting on 39th Street right now? So

Tom Perlozzo 35:56
there’s there’s probably 1717. Yes. How

Nestor Aparicio 35:59
many were here 25 years ago, when you and I were commodos, you go 56222,

Tom Perlozzo 36:04
yeah, two.

Nestor Aparicio 36:05
So I got. I’ll leave you with this, and I want to promote. Tom Palazzo’s here. We’re gonna have the Marivo City as well. We’re a makeover. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery. I mean, broken out my Ravens scratch offs and all that stuff. GBMC also putting us on the road. Big thanks to them and Fernan and Dermer. They are the comfort guys as well. I’m very. By the way, man, I usually bring a sweatshirt down because it’s cold. They put me on the second floor. I’m on the bay side. I have beautiful lighting. I have great guests, and I’m not freezing my tail off. So promote my HVA guys on that.

Tom Perlozzo 36:33
You reminded me of something. I took some Powerball tickets last night. I didn’t check them. Anybody win?

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Nestor Aparicio 36:37
I got to go to mvlattery.com. I have it right on my app. I’ll let you know in a second. Here, you’re distracting me. I can’t help it. So, I was in line yesterday, and you know I’m not a golfer, and I make fun of all the golfers. But I, I don’t hate golf. I just don’t play. I mean, the ball doesn’t move. How hard can it be? I’m a baseball guy. I’m a tennis player.

Tom Perlozzo 36:55
Player foul balls and golf.

Nestor Aparicio 36:56
Exactly. So, I’m in line. Guys are waiting to get free orange crushes at the free Mako party at the free Mackies wherever I was, and they’re in line in front of me, and they’re like, “Yeah, you playing golf? Yeah, play golf. Golf guys, you know, hats, money guys. We’re a Republican thing. Golf, yeah, golf. And he’s like, “Yeah, we got out there, man. Mosquitoes. Oh my God, the mosquitoes first six holes. They tore me up, and I’m thinking, man, mosquitoes in golf? I don’t even want to know about that. You know, spray. You got to spray, right?

Tom Perlozzo 37:27
Oh yeah. I mean, I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 37:28
really.

Tom Perlozzo 37:29
It’s like jellyfish and mosquitoes are going hand in hand, killing us here. It’s crazy. I

Nestor Aparicio 37:34
go to the pool then, man.

8

Tom Perlozzo 37:35
Mosquitoes. You know, I I thought I was gonna you know die of DEET because I sprayed down three times playing golf, it was crazy. But you know, eventually the winds get a little bit of wind. Give me some wind. There’s zero wind, but I don’t

Nestor Aparicio 37:50
even think of mosquitoes as a hazard for golfing. You know what I mean? Literally, like it’s just not. If I went to golf, which I’m not doing today, but thank you, Classic Five, and I, I ran into Jen last night at the. But so I mean, I I kid, but like it’s four hours on a golf course, and I’m thinking sun sunblock hit the ball beer pee hit the ball, get in the cart, walk.

Tom Perlozzo 38:15
No self. Let’s do business. Let’s do business. Let’s

Nestor Aparicio 38:18
you know like do all that, and I’m thinking add mosquitoes to that, and I’ll be at the 19th hole. I’ll just meet you at the bar.

Tom Perlozzo 38:25
Oh yeah, we you know, I’m tell you, depends on where you play, what type of day mosquito. I hate mosquitoes in the shade. You can’t go in the shade because that’s where the mosquitoes

Nestor Aparicio 38:34
are. I’ve removed snakes easier than dealing with mosquitoes. That’s how much I hate that. All right, it’s my my sweet blood, Tom Palazzo’s here. He runs things in Ocean City. They’re trying to get the sports complex. But so next step, I’ll pick this up with the mayor in a minute. But what’s what’s the timeline ideally? What’s the perfect scenario of everything goes perfect? What happens?

Tom Perlozzo 38:54
We’re looking November to get before the state, have them evaluate the project, and then you know if it gets approved sometime you know after the veto period by the governor, we’ll close on their property and then we’ll start.

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Nestor Aparicio 39:08
But this is not a legislature issue next year. It’s a governor issue.

Tom Perlozzo 39:12
It’s well, it could be. It’s okay. You know it’s probably both.

Nestor Aparicio 39:15
I’m just trying to understand the hurdles.

Tom Perlozzo 39:17
You know, so that’s a hurdle. That’s a hurdle for us. Well, I don’t want

Nestor Aparicio 39:21
to say it’s controversial. It’s just money, but it’s not like it’s not like the windmills or something. You know, it’s. I mean, I don’t think anybody’s against this. It’s it’s where to put it, how to put it. Is it a good idea? Show me, show me. I, you know, I’ve done sports wagering. I mean, I’ve done hard issues here. The horse racing thing’s a hard issue. I don’t see this sports thing as being. I’d like to meet the detractors and just hear what they have to say about it because makes all the sense in the world to me. And again, not just because I’m a sports guy or a music guy for concerts. I’m an economic development guy. I see what’s good for down here, and it’s very obvious that this is good for down here.

Tom Perlozzo 39:57
Yeah, it is. And you know, like I said, we’ll be. You know, I don’t think this is going to be an easy project to get up and running. But you know, everybody challenged. Well, you got me. You got me. We’re good. Well, we we could use the help. Thank you.

Nestor Aparicio 40:10
Screw Virginia Beach. They come to Ocean City. That’s right. All right, Tom Palazzo’s here. We’re down at Ocean City, Mayor. One one day he’s going to give me. It is the best logo. It is a great. No, don’t give me that one. I don’t want yours. There

8

Tom Perlozzo 40:22
you go. All right, put that on. Put it on, baby.

Nestor Aparicio 40:28
Ocean City, Maryland. Back for more from Mako. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.