Twenty Ideas for Atlantic City – By Bill Kelly billkelly3@gmail.com (609) 425-6297
1) They started a Mob-Museum in Las Vegas with help of the FBI, but without community support, it faltered. Vegas didn’t get started until after World War II, while organized crime got organized right here in Atlantic City. That museum belongs here, in Atlantic City, where the 1929 convention of mobsters was held by the same people who decided, at the AC meeting, that gambling should replace booze as the mob’s primary source of income after prohibition ended. The old Masonic Hall would be a good place for it.
2) Fix the Boardwalk Hall organ – the largest in the world, and make it a major attraction again, and let it be used for benefit concerts for non-profit organizations.
3) Do whatever it takes to bring back the Miss America pageant back to the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
4) The PGA Senior’s Tour began at the Atlantic City Country Club and there should be a PGA Champion’s Tour event at the Jersey Shore, to compliment the LPGA event, as well as a major amateur tournament similar to the Sonny Fraser invitational that was discontinued when ACCC was purchased by the casinos.
5) Golf at the Jersey Shore is totally under rated, and the figures are easy to see where Ocean City, Maryland spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their two dozen golf courses, and earns nearly $50 million a year income, while the Jersey Shore clubs spend less than one hundred thousand on golf marketing, and earn less than $5 million a year. It’s not a matter of throwing money at advertising, it is a matter of proper promotion, and the use of the fabulous history of the Jersey Shore clubs to attract golfers from out of town and compete with the other markets. Atlantic City has what other golf markets don’t – a great history.
6) While the beach and boardwalk are important, the back bays of Atlantic City are not utilized as they should be by boaters, fishermen, sailors and canoe/kayaks. While the local boat construction industry has concentrated on large yachts, they also should be building smaller boats that more people can afford and use locally. Among the boats that should be concentrated on are sculling and row boats, Olympic class sailboats, and Americas Cup Class sailboats.
7) There is a new, international circuit of America’s Cup Class catamarans that are really fast and exciting to watch, and they are looking for places to race – and Atlantic City should be considered as a possible venue. While the America’s Cup is now in San Francisco, it might be raced again in Newport, and Atlantic City could be considered for the World Cup event of America’s Cup Class boats, which would be like hosting the Super Bowl of boats.
8) The America’s Cup is now back in America, in San Francisco, but they can’t seem to agree on having a regatta there, so Atlantic City should put an offer on the table that can better Newport for the defense of the next Cup or contest for getting the World Cup race, which is held the year before and after the America’s Cup and is a fleet race that includes all of the major competitors.
9) In order to attract foreign visitors, the Atlantic City Airport should make it easy for private planes to land there from Europe, and the Atlantic City Yacht basin should make it easy and encourage more visits by wealthy yachters to visit.
10) There should be easy train and/or trolley connections between downtown Atlantic City and the Atlantic City International Airport, the FAA Tech Center and Stockton College, though there is no mass transit connection between these three key points that are core attributes to the Jersey Shore.
11) Atlantic City should offer more concerts and shows, bring back the Atlantic City Pop Festival (1969) and Atlantic City Jazz Festival, start a folk festival and make them city-wide events, both in and outside of the casinos.
12) The casino showrooms should make it easy for the acts to film and record their shows and sold-out shows can be presented live over the internet – or archived and viewed later, or the music downloaded and listened to shortly after the show is over – Live From Atlantic City.
13) With all of the acts that come to Atlantic City there should be full service recording studios for them to record new albums and videos.
14) There used to be over 200 liquor licenses in Atlantic City, and they should be reissued so new bars and restaurants can be opened outside of the casinos, and operated 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. Atlantic City used to be known as an “Open City” open for business all the time - AC 24-7.
15) Atlantic City should be promoted as it has always been known as an “Open City,” open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for business, for meetings, for pleasure, and try to attract those international jet setters, New York and Philadelphia pleasure seekers, and just ordinary people who want to have a good time.
16) There should be a high-speed, giant catamaran pedestrian-only ferries that run between Atlantic City Inlet, Philadelphia, Cape May and New York City, similar to the Australian ferries used during the America’s Cup and in Hawaii.
17) The HBO production of “Boardwalk Empire” is popular in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and those fans should be encouraged to visit Atlantic City, fly directly to Atlantic City Airport in junkets and visit the real Boardwalk Empire.
18) The State of New Jersey and Atlantic City should make it easier for movie and TV production crews to film in town, as Canada encourages such productions, but local and state taxes penalize these companies. The Boardwalk Empire boardwalk studio is in a Brooklyn, New York lot, when it could have been built right in Atlantic City, and used as a tourist attraction when not in use.
19) While the former planning policy of keeping visitors inside the casinos is now out the window, most of old Atlantic City – Nucky Johnson’s town, is gone, though what is left should be preserved and maintained, and tours of the historic town should be given.
20) Atlantic City has a history, a great history and many fine traditions that are still maintained, and that history should be used as the basis for any marketing campaign attempting to bring more tourists to town. Atlantic City was and can be once again, the Showplace of the World, if only the attempt is made to make it so.
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