OCEAN CITY – Resort officials last week approved Tourism Development Grant (TDG) funds for two special events in Ocean City.
During last month’s Ocean City Tourism Commission meeting, Tourism and Business Development Director Tom Perlozzo asked for and received a positive recommendation for the expenditure of TDG funds for two special events, including Premiere Basketball, a tournament that has been coming to Ocean City for nearly four decades, and the Ocean City Art League’s annual film festival, which has become a fixture on the spring special events calendar for the last seven years. Last week, the Mayor and Council voted unanimously to approve the tourism commission’s recommendations for TDG funding at the requested amount.
The Premiere Basketball tournament has been held on two weekends in late May and early June for the last 38 years. This summer, event organizers were seeking a third weekend and their request for funding from the town reflected that additional weekend of heads in beds, seats filled in restaurants and other indirect gains for Ocean City.
TDG funds for the Premiere Basketball event in the past were set at $18,000 for the two weekends, but the promoters were seeking $22,000 this year because of the added weekend. The tourism commission recommended funding at $15,000, or $5,000 for each of the three weekends, along with $7,000 in in-kind services provided by the town to help produce the event. That figure was approved by the Mayor and Council last Tuesday.
The Premiere Basketball event is essentially a series of weekend tournaments spread over three weeks. The first tournament set for Saturday, May 27 and Sunday, May 28, is expected to draw 90 teams, or as many as 1,400 participants. The second weekend, set for Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4, is expected to draw 150 teams, or as many as 2,000 participants. Finally, the last weekend tournament set for Saturday, June 10 and Sunday, June 11, is expected to draw around 95 teams, or as many as 1,500 attendees.
Also last week, the Mayor and Council unanimously approved a $15,000 expenditure in TDG funds for the Ocean City Art League’s 7th annual Ocean City Film Festival set for this March. The funding request will support the film festival’s media spending for advertising and promotion.
The Ocean City Film Festival features works by independent filmmakers from all over the world and has become widely regarded as one of the best festivals of its kind in the mid-Atlantic region. The Town of Ocean City is the festival’s title sponsor and the TDG funding approved last week matches the town’s contribution of $15,000 last year.
