While the Maryland men’s basketball team will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament, the 370 members of NAIOP Maryland will be shooting for their One Shining Moment.

The state chapter of the commercial real estate trade group will hold its annual March Madness networking party on Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. at the Townhouse Kitchen and Bar, located on 1350 Lancaster St. in Baltimore.

The party is open to members and non-members and tickets are $65 per person for hors d’oeuvres, drinks, door prizes and a mini bracketology contest.

Is your company or organization doing anything connected with the NCAA Tournament? Let us know in the comments section.

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For the 12^th year in a row, Corrigan Sports Enterprises is doing more for its signature event, the Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival.

More runners, more sponsors, more volunteers, more charitable donations, more TV airtime.

About 27,000 runners from the Baltimore area and beyond will flock to downtown streets Saturday morning. The event has become a Charm City staple thanks to the keen business minds of Lee Corrigan and his close-knit team of 13 people.

The festival drew about 6,500 participants in 2001, a number that increased 10-to-20 percent each year. Its estimated economic impact has soared from less than $10 million to about $30.5 million last year, according to a study by Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute.

The festival’s success is even more impressive considering it was the brainchild of a guy whose company was… sort of an accident.

He was in the right place, at the right time, with the right skill set.

Back in the 1980s, Corrigan was working for the athletic department at the University of Maryland, College Park when one of the scoreboard screens “literally exploded.” But the department was still reeling from the media storm surrounding basketball player Len Bias’ death, and couldn’t exactly afford new screens, he said.

So officials worked out a deal with an equipment company that agreed to provide them. Corrigan was asked to find sponsors for the screens. In return, Corrigan said, he’d get 15 percent of ad sales.

By 1991, he’d accumulated enough money on the side that he needed to account for the extra income. Before he knew it, his accountant was inquiring what he’d like to call his new company.

Poof – Corrigan Sports Enterprises was born.

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The roar of engines downtown was as loud as ever Sunday morning for the third and final day of the Grand Prix of Baltimore but was accompanied by cloudy skies and – initially – smaller crowds.

Sunday’s schedule includes the most highly anticipated race of the weekend, but at noon, the grandstands were considerably emptier than Saturday and fewer people milled throughout general admission area.

As the afternoon progressed, however, the crowds began to rival Saturday’s turnout. As the start of the big race neared, the general admission audience appeared larger than it had all weekend, though the grand stands still weren’t full.

Weather remains an concern; Baltimoreans can expect “widespread showers and thunderstorms developing by 3 p.m.” and continuing through the night, with a 60 to 80 percent chance of rain, according to weather.com.

Race organizers and fans have been lucky so far – although intermittent heavy rains pelted those attendees who stuck around through the evening on Saturday, skies were clear and sunny during most of the festivities.

The weather wasn’t favorable to restaurant owners after the race, though. Several said they were hoping attendees would stroll through the city and choose somewhere to settle in for dinner, but the rain caused many people to quickly seek shelter instead.

So how will more rain affect the drivers? If the skies open up over the track, officials said the cars can handle it, so they’ll still hold the title event – the IZOD IndyCar Series Race, scheduled for 2:45 – 5:00 p.m.

But if Baltimore gets a severe storm, that’s another story. So stay tuned.

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As drivers revv their engines for the first practice runs of the Grand Prix of Baltimore, race organizers will outsource some of their promotional duties to a select group of social media users in hopes of spreading race news to a larger audience.

Andretti Sports Marketing, the firm in charge of promoting the race, handpicked 28 Twitter users to include a special hashtag — #SocialGP — while Tweeting during the event. In return, each user will receive a free reserved grandstand seat each race day.

Organizers had previously said they wouldn’t distribute free tickets to the public.

The marketing team has also provided general admission tickets to some restaurants and hotels for those business owners to include in special packages for their patrons, according to ASM General Manager Tim Mayer. Mayer talked about “an exchange of value” between his group and the business owners who received tickets, but did not  specify whether they’d received a partial or full discount off the ticket price.

Gurss said giving tickets to those on the #SocialGP list is just another element of their marketing strategy, because they’re counting on the benefits of extra exposure on social media platforms.

“We don’t see it any differently than buying a radio ad,” said ASM Communications Director Jade Gurss.

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So how much would it mean to businesses in Baltimore if the Orioles make the playoffs?

That was one of the issues discussed Wednesday at a panel discussion on the economic impact of Camden Yards, hosted by the team.

After Tuesday’s games, the Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays were essentially tied atop the American League Wild Card standings. If the season ended today (which, last I looked, it doesn’t), both teams would be in the playoffs.

Doug Duennes, executive vice president of business operations for the Orioles, said that the addition of one more wild card team in each league has added to the excitement of the playoff races. He also said that despite the team’s poor record over the last 14 years, that they would be ready.

“We had to dust off that manual a little bit,” Duennes said. “As we get into a nice September run, the excitement goes beyond Camden Yards.”

“Because we play so many games, we are able to build momentum,” he added. “Everybody is on the edge of their seat.”

Thomas J. Noonan, president ant CEO of Visit Baltimore, the city’s tourism arm, pointed out the “civic pride component,” as well as the fact that there are more people coming to the park. He also said a winning team helps him draw visitors.

“People like going to towns where there are winners,” he said. “If we get extra games in October, that has a huge impact on us.”

And Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, said the team’s success has brought a “feeling of pride to the corporate community” as well.

“When you see something going good, you want to be a part of that,” Fry said.

UPDATE

The Orioles also said that they will be sending playoff ticket invoices (!) to their season ticket holders starting Thursday. (The news was first reported by the Baltimore Business Journal.)

Orioles spokesman Greg Bader said ticket prices for the first two rounds (Wild Card and Divisional playoffs) would be “mostly” the same as prime regular season games.

American League Championship Series games would be about 50 to 60 percent more than prime games, and World Series games would be three times as much, Bader said.

The Orioles make recommendations on ticket prices to Major League Baseball, Bader said, and then MLB makes recommendations back to the Orioles before the prices are set.

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Do we really want to take another shot at the Olympics for Baltimore-Washington?

The U.S. Olympic Committee has already decided not to bid on the 2020 Summer Games, so the next opportunity would be for 2024, and that decision will be made in five years. In the meantime, consider this bit of news that has come out of London on Monday:

Tourism in Great Britain actually was down during the just-completed Olympics, the Associated Press reported. A British tourist trade association that surveyed its members said 88 percent found their business during the Olympics was down from the same period last year. Businesses said the number of tourists dropped 10 to 13 percent from 2011.

The games didn’t even fill London’s hotels. They had 80 percent occupancy, which is their normal August rate.

Plus, the visitors to London weren’t getting out and about — at least not in the tourist spending sense.

“The people who came to the games really didn’t do very much sightseeing, didn’t do very much shopping, didn’t do very much eating out,” Miles Quest, a spokesman for the British Hospitality Association, told the AP.

The overall drop may be a case of the Olympics driving some people away.

“A lot of people thought London would be very busy and very expensive at this time,” said Mary Rance, chief executive of UKinbound, the tourist trade association. “We weren’t completely surprised, but we were a bit disappointed that [the Olympics] seem to have had an impact around the U.K., not just London.”

It could be a case of people heeding the words of that sage, Yogi Berra, who once supposedly said: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

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With Wednesday’s news that there may be a deal in the works to keep the Suns minor-league team in Hagerstown, we’re reminded of Hagerstown’s place in baseball history.

We’re not talking about how Hagerstown was briefly the home of Washington Nationals wunderkind Bryce Harper. Hagerstown has had professional baseball off and on since 1915, though there was a big gap from the 1950s until 1980s.

However, in June 1950, Hall of Famer Willie Mays — who should be on anyone’s short list of the greatest players ever — played his first professional game in Hagerstown as a newly signed member of the New York Giants’ Trenton, N.J., minor-league club.

Mays has recalled Hagerstown of those days as a terrible place for a black ballplayer, where he was subjected to racist catcalls whenever he took the field. But Mays was invited back to Hagerstown by the Suns in 2004, and, upon his visit, he said he had forgiven the town for the way he was treated.

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UPDATE (11:25 A.M., July 17) – The San Francisco Chronicle reports a Stanford spokeswoman has denied that Anderson is in talks to take over the university’s athletic department. However, the paper still Read the rest of this entry »

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Bring on the asphalt.

At its executive board meeting this week, the Maryland Stadium Authority approved the $950,000 resurfacing of stadium complex parking lots B and C, located between Lee and Hamburg streets.

The contract went to P. Flanigan & Sons Inc. of Baltimore; work is expected to begin this month and extend to September, said John F. Samoryk, the stadium authority’s procurement officer.

The contract is dependent on approval by the Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles, who will pay 20 and 32 percent of the cost, respectively, with the stadium authority picking up the rest, said Jan Hardesty, spokeswoman for the stadium authority.

“The Orioles and Ravens were both very involved in this process,” Samoryk said at the meeting. “I think all three parties recognize that the work needs to be done. It’s never been done throughout the history of the complex since the original parking lots were put in, so, I want to say the useful life has been exceeded now.”

Flanigan will not work when the Orioles have home games, Samoryk said.

“Frankly, there’s no good time of the year to do this because it has to be done during warm weather and when there’s warm weather we’ve always got either baseball games or football games,” he said.

The Orioles’ last home game is Sept. 30 and the Ravens kick off their season Sept. 10 with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals. They have two preseason home games in August.

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Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips has won three Gold Glove awards for his fielding prowess. But that doesn’t mean he can wear a gold glove while he’s playing.

That’s the position of Rawlings Sporting Goods, the manufacturer that started the Gold Glove awards 55 years ago. Rawlings is suing Wilson Sporting Goods in federal court because Wilson makes the glove that Phillips has been wearing (seen at right), which features “metallic gold-colored webbing, stitching and lettering,” the complaint states.

“Not only is Mr. Phillips using the infringing Wilson glove in the field during games, warm-ups, and practices, but defendant and Mr. Phillips also have promoted the very existence of the glove (and its connection to Wilson) through various channels and media.”

Rawlings claims it has cornered the gold market when it comes to baseball gloves, so it wants Wilson to stop making any glove with “metallic gold-colored material, or any other features that are confusingly similar” to the gloves Rawlings gives to award winners each year.

Rawlings isn’t suing Phillips, so it’s not clear whether company representatives will be showing up at the ballpark to yank the glove off Phillips’ hand.

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