OCEAN CITY — The highly anticipated study to determine the feasibility of a sports complex to help rebrand Ocean City as a major youth sports destination has been completed, but resort officials have not yet seen it.
Throughout much of the last year, resort officials have expressed a desire to pursue the growing youth sports market as a means to expand tourism throughout the year. To that end, the Mayor and Council in March commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of developing a potential sports complex, either indoor or outdoor, or a combination of both, to attract more youth sports leagues and tournaments.
It’s no secret the youth sports market, including tournaments, camps and clinics all over the country, has become a multi-billion-dollar industry growing seemingly every day and Ocean City has been exploring ways to tap into it. Some analysis has shown youth sports is now taking a major bite out of the tourism and travel market and Ocean City, with its vast lodging and hospitality resources, could become an even bigger destination outside of its peak summer season.
There has been considerable debate about maximizing the resources the town already has at its disposal and an even larger debate about developing a sports complex either on the island or out in the county somewhere to further exploit the growing market. To that end, the Mayor and Council commissioned the private sector consulting firm Crossroads to conduct a feasibility study of a sports complex in or around the resort area.
During a review of last week’s Tourism Commission meeting on Monday, Councilman Matt James told his colleagues the study has been completed, but resort officials have not yet been privy to the results. Instead, the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA), which partners with the town on the convention center and would likely be a state partner on any future sports complex in the resort area, has a first crack at it.
“The sports study is done and the MSA has it,” he said. “I’m not sure why we don’t have it since we paid for it.”
Indeed, Ocean City did pay for the study to the tune of around $49,000, but the MSA contracts with Crossroads on other studies and facilitated the arrangement with the private sector consultant. Councilman Mark Paddack questioned why the state got a first look at it and why it took so many months.
“How did it end up at MSA?” he said. “Here it is December 16 and we still haven’t seen it.”
City Manager Doug Miller explained it was part of the formal agreement between the town, the MSA and Crossroads.
“It’s part of the contractual agreement with MSA,” he said. “They’re working through their process and we’ll get when they complete that. They want to come down in January and discuss it with you.”
Councilman Dennis Dare questioned if resort officials were going to go into that meeting with the MSA cold. However, it is uncertain when city officials will get their first look at the final study.
“Are we going to get that ahead of time?” he said. “I’d like to be able to read it over and get up to speed before that meeting.”
For the record, Crossroads conducted a similar sports study for Worcester County although any proposed project got little traction. The county never acted on its own Crossroads study for a variety of reasons, so Ocean City moved forward with its own study specific to the resort. The potential exists for a partnership between the town and the county on a sports complex somewhere off the island, likely in the north end of Worcester, but for now, Ocean City is moving forward on its own path.
