OCEAN CITY — If resort officials are serious about rebranding Ocean City’s image after the recent backlash over some of the motorized events, they got off to a good start this week with the approval of three cultural and youth sports-related special events.
During a Mayor and Council work session on Tuesday, Greg Shockley of the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) presented three special events with requests for funding that have been approved by TAB. In each of the last several years, the town has funded special events with a $300,000 line item in the budget earmarked for TAB, which reviews specific special events requests and makes recommendations to the Mayor and Council on whether or not to fund them after they are carefully vetted.
It’s important to note the $300,000 allocation for TAB comes through a funding mechanism tied to the room tax collected in the resort. In that way, the town’s contributions to the events are not paid directly by taxpayers, but largely on the backs of the tourists and participants who enjoy them.
One of the events presented for approval by Shockley on Tuesday was a 2nd Annual Ocean City Film Festival with a request for $4,850 in TAB funding. The pilot Ocean City Film Festival was held last June to gauge interest in the event. Over 700 films were submitted and 135 were selected to be screened. The requested 2018 event will be held in March this year, shifting to a time when there is greater availability at the hotels.
“It’s a great event,” said Shockley. “It’s low impact and it’s cultural tourism. We think it’s a great event to continue.”
The second request was for $20,000 from TAB to support a new cheerleading and dance competition produced by Epic Spirit Ventures, Inc., which is seeking to add a new cheerleading event next March. Epic Spirit Ventures already hosts two similar events in Ocean City and Shockley explained the organization is seeking to expand its presence in the Ocean City market.
“This one comes under youth sports marketing, which we’re trying to encourage,” said Shockley. “They’re here three or four times a year and this is a new event for Ocean City. It comes at a time in the calendar when we need people here.”
The third and final event presented on Tuesday was a youth lacrosse tournament series hosted by Hogan Lax. Hogan Lax is seeking two-year funding for a total of four youth lacrosse tournaments in the area totaling $25,000. The breakdown would be $7,500 for the Shore Wars tournament in June 2018, and $7,500 for another tournament in the fall of 2018 just after Columbus Day weekend. Hogan Lax was also seeking $5,000 for the June event in 2019 and $5,000 for a fall event in 2019, for a total request of $25,000.
After a few weeks of backlash over some of the motorized special events in the resort and their impact on the city, the TAB request for the cultural and youth sports-related events could not have come at a better time and the council embraced them.
Councilman John Gehrig said the proposed events are exactly what the resort needs at a time when the town is attempting to sort out some of its other special events.
“These are the types of things we need as we rebrand Ocean City with a nice cultural event and youth sports activities at the time we need them,” he said. “When we talk about replacement, this is what we’re talking about.”
Shockley pointed out the requested special events were carefully reviewed and vetted before any decision was made to recommend funding them to the Mayor and Council.
“These are three we’ve approved, but there were also two we sent back out,” he said. “It’s not a free-for-all where everybody knows they can come in and get money from us. There have been groups that have come in and pitched their ideas and we say we like your idea, but you need to go back and work on this.”
Shockey said TAB works closely with the special event promoters to ensure they are exactly the types of events the town is looking for.
“It’s not a rubber stamp for money for these events,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had promoters with events that have been willing to go back out and refine what they’re doing to get the events TAB is looking for and hopefully you guys are looking for.”
Gehrig thanked TAB for carefully reviewing the proposed special events and presenting nice cultural and sports-related alternatives. He also thanked the promoters, some of whom were on hand on Tuesday, for bringing wholesome events to the resort.
“This is an opportunity to vet events that are beneficial and profitable for Ocean City,” he said. “We are grateful to have promoters that love Ocean City and want to bring their groups here.”
The council voted unanimously to approve the requested funding for the three special events.
