Big Top Returns to Baltimore

The owners of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows have settled their longstanding differences with a theatrical management group, allowing the world famous circus to return to Baltimore.

“It was an economic decision that kept us out (of Baltimore) and not some romantic media-generated fight . . . and now all the sticking points have been ironed out and we’re in again,” said Allen J. Bloom, executive vice president at Ringling, which is based in Fairfax.

Ringling had pulled its circus and its Walt Disney’s World of Ice show out of the Baltimore Arena in 1988 after the city government awarded a contract to the Maryland-based Landover Group to operate the arena. At the time, the circus complained about ticket surcharges and receipt percentages demanded by the company.

Mary McNamara, a spokeswoman for Ringling, said today that the circus would return to Baltimore in 1993.