Miss America: Will she find home in Atlantic City for 100th anniversary?

Austin Bogues and Shannon Mullen, Asbury Park Press Published 5:00 a.m. ET April 12, 2019

ATLANTIC CITY - "There she is, Miss America," go the lyrics. But will she still be crowned in Atlantic City, where she started 98 years ago?

The Miss America Organization and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which owns Boardwalk Hall, disclosed earlier this week that they've agreed to stop hosting the competition at the historic 90-year-old venue, citing high production costs.

The development authority paid the organization $4.3 million for last year's competition, according to Matt Doherty, the development authority's executive director.

Miss America 2019 Nia Imani Franklin is mobbed from after she was crowned at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, Sunday, September 9, 2018. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello)

A change in venues doesn't necessarily mean an exit from Atlantic City, however.

"I’ve been working with the president of the Miss America Organization, Regina Hopper, to try to keep it in Atlantic City," Doherty, the former mayor of Belmar, told the Asbury Park Press on Thursday.

"We’d like to see it stay here. It’d be better for Atlantic City to have Miss America than not have it," he said. He declined to name venues under consideration.

The Miss America Organization also said it hopes to remain in Atlantic City. But the organization said it is considering other cities, as well.

"When the MAO (Miss America Organization) board of directors has reviewed all of the proposals, MAO will make a public announcement,” the organization said in a statement.

Highlights from former Miss New York Nia Imani Franklin speaks to the media after being crowned Miss America 2019 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Thomas P. Costello, USA Today Network New Jersey

Nia Franklin of New York was crowned Miss America 2019 at the last competition at Boardwalk Hall in September. Doherty said it is the broadcast aspects of the competition that make it so expensive.

"If we do boxing or other events like that, or basketball, it's much more manageable," Doherty said. "When you’re putting on a big production for a Sunday night prime time show, it’s a whole other level."

The competition has undergone numerous changes since the first Miss America was crowned on the Atlantic City boardwalk in 1921. Last year, organizers announced the discontinuation of the swimsuit competition.

"We are no longer a pageant; we are a competition. We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance," Gretchen Carlson, chair of the Miss America Organization board, told Good Morning America last year. "That means we will no longer have a swimsuit competition."

Additionally, the contest has left Atlantic City before. After the 2004 show, it moved to Las Vegas before returning to Atlantic City in 2013.

Pete Bruno of Howell is among those pulling for the event to remain in Atlantic City.

A retired schoolteacher, Bruno heads the scholarship organization that hosts the annual Miss Central Jersey competition, one of the hundreds of regional contests that feed into the Miss America contest. This year's event was held at Howell High School in January.

"I'm a traditionalist," said Bruno, 61. "There's a lot of us hoping it stays in Atlantic City."

Bruno, however, said he understands the need to find an alternative venue.

Boardwalk Hall was constructed in 1929. Totaling 141,000 square feet, it has has a seating capacity of 14,770, according to its website.

Bruno speculated that the competition could wind up at the one of the Atlantic City casinos. The Miss New Jersey competition, coincidentally, is moving to the Resorts Casino Hotel this June after many years in Ocean City.

"That's a big change, and we're surviving fine," he said.

If Miss America does leave Atlantic City, Bruno said, the show will go on. Bruno attended the competition in 2008 when it was held in Las Vegas. A Howell resident, Amy Palumbo, represented New Jersey that year.

"I think people liked it," he said. "Vegas was cool."

https://www.app.com/story/life/2019/04/12/miss-america-atlantic-city-boardwalk-hall/3435164002/