In Canada:
"Provincial funding cuts undermine the mandate of Calgary’s Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts and threaten the viability of the downtown facility in its current form, its CEO said Wednesday."
So how did they solve it? The City of Calgary shelled out $315,000. That's how.
And in Mobile, Alabama:
"It won’t be easy. The downtown sports and entertainment venue, which has long seen its heyday pass as a touring concert attraction, has in recent years run an annual deficit of $600,000 to more than $800,000. That’s a drain of more than $1,700 per day, 365 days a year. The deficit has fluctuated in the past, and there are estimates that it could increase in the future. "
Hey, $800K a year don't sound bad, Greensboro is loosing $2.2 Million a year. Maybe we should fire Matt Brown and hire Mobile's guy? Meanwhile, up in Wisconsin:
"Dozens of speakers – from college students to corporate CEOs, from a Grammy-winning musician to our state's poet laureate – told the Eau Claire City Council Monday night what they liked (and didn’t like) about the proposed Confluence Project that could transform downtown Eau Claire. "
Looks like everybody is getting into the act. And you know what happens when everybody gets into the act? You have to lower your price to keep the venue filled. And when you lower your price you have to figure out another way to pay the bills.
Now for some good news. The AT & T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, Texas finished in the black for their second year. The bad news: They're still $40 Million short.
Meanwhile in Scramento:
"Ray Tatar, owner of a performing arts center at 25th and R Street, expressed concerns about the project, especially how a public-subsidized arts center would affect his own center, privately owned and funded and operating in the neighborhood for 20 years. Tatar felt it gave them a competitive advantage over his own project, and he could lose tenants (including theater companies, poetry groups, artists’ studios and a French cultural center) to a group that receives assistance from the city in paying their overhead."
Don't we also have some performance venues in Greensboro with simular concerns? Not to worry though, if those existing venues start having problems I'm sure the City Council will vote to bail them out. After all, we can't afford to be putting people out of work in a down economy, can we? Going north again to Michigan:
"As educational facilities became a linchpin to many architecture and construction firms’ survival in the recession, the construction of fine arts amenities in the region has slowed since 2008, according to industry executives. Still, Triangle Associates Inc., the general contractor in charge of the Jenison project, added roughly 5,000 seats worth of new performing arts facilities in under a decade.
The company put together a 35,000-square-foot, $7.5 million fine arts center for Grant Public Schools and a 62,000-square-foot, $12 million center for Forest Hills Public Schools in 2004. In 2010, Triangle also finished the 52,000-square foot, $9.9 million Wayland Fine Arts Center after that school district passed a $39 million bond issue."
Like I said, they build them everywhere but these are actually built for educational purposes. Oh it looks like somebody cracked the Egg, aka the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center:
" During the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, the Authority held 142 events at the Egg and reported $1.53 million in total revenue.State appropriations accounted for 14 percent of this total. Operating costs of the Authority were $1.67 million. The Authority has incurred annual operating losses since 2008-09. As a result, the Authority has relied on an accumulated fund balance from prior years and withheld payments to OGS for its billed share of the Egg’s operating costs to sustain operations.
The Authority received $220,000 in state funds in the current fiscal year; down almost 60 percent since FY 2009-10.
OGS runs adjacent spaces on the Empire State Plaza, including the Convention Center beneath The Egg.
As with many public authorities, disengagement by board members appears to be rampant:"
How are we to know the GPAC board members will be any better engaged. Fact is: considering all the problems they've had already, my guess is they're already pretty much disengaged. Ever been to Kent, Washington? I have. It's about as far from Seattle as Greensboro is from Durham. You would think they could fill the house:
"The arena lost $2.01 million during its first four years of operation, including a record high $707,000 in 2012. The city puts aside money each year in its capital budget to cover the arena losses, money that could be spent on improvements to city streets, facilities and other capital projects."
We won't be able to have ice hocky games in the GPAC, will we? How about monster trucks? Indoor motocross?
