Council votes to set meeting for sports complex study talk

By Mallory Panuska Staff Writer

(Feb. 3, 2023) While the majority of Worcester County Commissioners have made every effort to kill and bury plans for a sports complex at a site off of Route 50 in Berlin, Ocean City officials are doing what they can to reinvigorate the project.

At a work session Tuesday, council members voted 6-0, with Council President Matt James absent, to direct City Manager Terry McGean to set a public meeting with representatives of the Maryland Stadium Authority and a consultant to present details of a city-funded study detailing development of a sports complex on a nearly 100-acre piece of property near Stephen Decatur High School.

“I mean, we paid for this so I definitely think we should have the presentation,” Councilman John Gehrig said before moving to schedule the meeting. “I also highly recommend we invite the county commissioners and the Berlin elected officials ... as well as any elected officials throughout the county, frankly, who would like to attend.”

The rest of the council agreed with Gehrig’s push to invite other officials, and also with a request to hold the meeting in a neutral place.

“It’s more of a team collaboration and allows us all to discuss it, get our questions answered, and that way we can make decisions going forward.” Gehrig said after suggesting they meet in a place like the convention center or another location away from City Hall.

Mayor Rick Meehan said last week that it is especially important for the county commissioners to attend the meeting, as they recently voted to cancel the land purchase and instructed staff to cease all work on the complex without any public discussion. Their decision came after county voters denied a bond issue for the land in the November election.

The state study, which was released to the public Nov. 28, was an update of one completed a couple of years earlier. It details the feasibility of the proposed site, provides cost estimates to build there, gives postcovid economic data for the activities proposed, and provides fiscal feasibility of the project in terms of state and local tax revenue. The overall cost of the project came in at an estimated $153.5 million, to be split between the state, county and city.

The site plan for the project calls for 10 rectangular outdoor fields, several of which would also be used as baseball or softball diamonds; a 125,000 square-foot indoor fieldhouse with 10 basketball courts or 20 volleyball courts and 20,000 square feet of expansion space; a tournament central area including parking, a playground, and support spaces

A rendering of a proposed sports complex on a nearly 100-acre lot off of Route 50 near Stephen Decatur High School is shown.

City Council members voted this week to set a meeting with members of the Maryland Stadium Authority and a consultant to present details of a study released in November about the project to the council, as well as county and other elected officials. RENDERING COURTESY POPULOUS such as lobbies, ticket offices, restrooms, spectator seating and storage; as well as future expansion areas.

And while the study analyzed the specific site that the county had optioned near SDHS, some city officials have also floated the idea of building the complex somewhere else, such as off of Route 113 or Route 589.