1st Mariner

Among arenas seating between 10,000 and 15,000 people, 1st Mariner was the year's highest grossing with nearly $16 million, Billboard magazine said in its year-end issue. It's the second year in a row the 1960s venue has received the honor. In 2009, it came in third behind Boardwalk Hall Arena in Atlantic City, N.J., and the MGM Grand's Garden Arena in Las Vegas. 1st Mariner opened in 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center, and has drawn the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen over the years despite its age. After nearly 50 years in business, city officials are seeking funding to replace it with a bigger, slicker facility.

In February, 1st Mariner Arena officials said they were close to finalizing a deal with the Washington Capitals to bring the Baltimore Hockey Classic back to the arena in September. The Capitals made it official Thursday, announcing that they would play a preseason game in Baltimore on September 26. The Capitals, who are presently playing the Boston Bruins in the first round of the NHL playoffs, will host the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second annual Baltimore Hockey Classic at 1st Mariner Arena . "We are excited to return to Baltimore," Capitals president Dick Patrick said in a statement on the team's official website.

Former 1st Mariner Bank executive Daniel McKew has landed a job at Baltimore's CFG Community Bank. CFG Community announced Tuesday that McKew will become its president. McKew left 1st Mariner after a year as its president. Previously, McKew served as chief executive of SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing Corp. in Towson. CFG Community Bank and its holding company, Capital Funding Bancorp, are operating under a consent order with state and federal bank regulators to shore up their corporate governance and management review processes.

Van Halen is extending its national tour and will perform at 1st Mariner Arena this summer. The band's show has been set for July 15, promoter Live Nation announced Tuesday morning. The show is a huge coup for 1st Mariner, which had badly wanted the band to play the venue on the first leg of the tour but which, in a recurring pattern , lost out to the larger, newer Verizon Center in Washington. It appears the show will be the band's first in the city since 2008.

1. Alicia Keys at 1st Mariner: Robin Thicke (my favorite male singer) and Melanie Fiona (one of my latest favorites) open up for my all-time favorite: Ms. Alicia Keys. (I guess I have lots of favorites.) Anyway, I'm super excited for this! I had my tickets weeks ago. 7:30 Wednesday. Tickets start at $39.50. AUBREY FORNWALT, B 2. She & Him, Volume 2 : I can't get enough of Zooey Deschanel -- in movies or in music. So if She & Him's second album, dropping Tuesday, is anything near as good as the first, I'm sure to be happy with the results.

1st Mariner Bancorp said Friday that it lost $3.1 million for the first quarter, or 48 cents per share, as the Baltimore company continued to see deterioration in its real estate loan portfolio. For the corresponding quarter last year, 1st Mariner lost $3.278 million, or 52 cents per share. Nonperforming assets in the first quarter rose to $65.1 million, or 4.72 percent of total assets, up nearly $25 million from a year earlier. That increase is largely due to bad loans in residential construction and development.

The last time regulators ordered Ed Hale to fix a money-losing bank or have it seized by the government was the early 1990s. The trucking executive had gained control of the Bank of Baltimore, which lent itself into trouble in the last real estate crash. Hale and other dissident shareholders took over the board, pulled the bank from a pit and made millions of dollars when they sold it to First Fidelity a couple of years later. Now that 1st Mariner Bank is in the same flavor of soup, Hale is suggesting he can pull off a similar rescue.

Bruce Springsteen fans snapped up all the tickets for The Boss' 1st Mariner Arena show in a mere 20 minutes, officials said Friday. For the record, that's about 15 minutes faster than pop star Hannah Montana, according to Frank Remesch, the arena's general manager. The roughly 14,400 tickets for Springsteen's Nov. 20 show sold out without a major hitch, Remesch said. The night before the tickets went on sale, he worried it wouldn't sell out, thereby proving Baltimore's reputation as a second-tier tour stop.

First Mariner Arena, Baltimore's largest indoor entertainment venue, has "served its useful life," and the city must build another before it starts losing events, a new report warns. Though the 45-year-old arena has recently boasted such draws as the Rolling Stones and the Miss USA pageant, an analysis released yesterday suggests that a more modern setting would attract minor league sports teams and bolster the appeal of downtown's west side.

In the latest sign of trouble, 1st Mariner Bank said Monday that it has been placed under more intense federal supervision as Baltimore's largest independent bank continues to struggle with soured real estate loans and its inability to raise cash. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Maryland Division of Financial Regulation issued a "cease and desist" order Friday, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, requiring 1st Mariner to devise a plan to improve its capital, liquidity and earnings and deal with problem loans.

The parent of 1st Mariner Bank said Monday that it took a minority stake in a small Cecil County bank after a customer defaulted on a loan — not as part of an acquisition strategy. 1st Mariner Bancorp. declined to identify the customer who lost nearly 25 percent of Cecil Bancorp's total shares to 1st Mariner in a collateral claim on a bad loan. The only person with such a significant stake in Elkton-based Cecil is its chairman, Charles F. Sposato, according to regulatory filings.

Officials at 1st Mariner Arena are close to finalizing a deal with the Washington Capitals to host an NHL preseason game for the second straight year. The second annual Baltimore Hockey Classic will be held Sept. 27. An announced sellout crowd of 11,082 packed the Arena last September for the first professional ice hockey game in Baltimore since 1997. The Capitals lost, 2-0, to the Nashville Predators. Despite issues with the ice surface during the game, the Capitals will return to the Baltimore market.

EASTON – Shortly before sunrise, Edwin F. Hale Sr. scatters decoys on the water, preparing for a day of waterfowl hunting on his Talbot County farm. The day dawns cloudy, a good sign because ducks and geese fly low under clouds, Hale says, as he and two hunting buddies settle into a duck blind camouflaged with pine branches along Hunting Creek. At first all is quiet, with no waterfowl to be seen. But Hale, as always, is hopeful. "Then a switch will be turned on and they come in," says Hale, 65, wearing jeans, a camouflage jacket and boots, and carrying duck and geese call horns.

When Elton John played 1st Mariner Arena last year, his first Baltimore performance in more than a decade, more than 12,000 fans turned out. Sade, opening her first American concert tour in just as many years, drew an audience just as big later in the summer, and it became 1st Mariner's highest-grossing show of 2011. The demand to see pop singer Robyn, who was playing her only regional show at Rams Head Live , was so large that some bus companies set up trips from Washington to Baltimore for the night.

The winds of economic destruction blow as hard in Baltimore as anywhere else. But business brainpower tends to stay anchored to the land of pleasant living. Alex. Brown is long gone, but the firm's tradition and former employees carry on at Brown Advisory, Signal Hill Capital and other firms. Legg Mason's former securities-research operation runs under the Stifel Nicolaus label. Felix Dawson isn't employed by Constellation Energy any more, but he's still here, working to save the Baltimore Grand Prix.

WWE returns to 1st Mariner Arena on Sunday night for WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. The main bout of the pay-per-view event — which starts at 7:45 p.m. — is a Triple Threat Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match featuring CM Punk, The Miz and Alberto Del Rio. Triple H also returns to the ring in Baltimore for the first time in two years for a showdown with Kevin Nash. Another TLC highlight will be the Intercontinental Championship match starring Booker T, who is leaving the broadcast table to settle a grudge against belt-holder Cody Rhodes.

At a time when Baltimore officials are poised to make recommendations on a new indoor sports and concert arena, the aging facility that's being replaced is performing better than ever. 1st Mariner Arena, badly in need of renovations, had its best year financially last year and is on track to surpass that performance this year, managers say. "We've had our most profitable year in the arena's history, and if it keeps going the way we think it will, it will be more profitable this year than last year," said Frank Remesch, general manager of the arena for venue management company SMG, which operates it under a city contract.

Among arenas seating between 10,000 and 15,000 people, 1st Mariner was the year's highest grossing with nearly $16 million, Billboard magazine said in its year-end issue. It's the second year in a row the 1960s venue has received the honor. In 2009, it came in third behind Boardwalk Hall Arena in Atlantic City, N.J., and the MGM Grand's Garden Arena in Las Vegas. 1st Mariner opened in 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center, and has drawn the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen over the years despite its age. After nearly 50 years in business, city officials are seeking funding to replace it with a bigger, slicker facility.

Reporter Chris Kaltenbach reviews a concert by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at 1st Mariner Arena November 25. Funny thing about reviewing Bob Seger in concert: his song titles pretty-much write the review themselves: “Old Time Rock & Roll,” “We've Got Tonight,” “Rock & Roll Never Forgets,” “Night Moves.” If only he had recorded Carole King's “You've Got a Friend,” my work would be done. Thirty-two years after last playing 1 st Mariner (it was known as the Civic Center back then)