Mosaic Place Quarterly Financial Results A Mixed Bag

By Robert Thomas

The quarterly financial report for Mosaic Place for January 1st thru to the end of March can be best described as a mixed bag of the really good, the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

The Really Good

Mosaic Place’s food and beverage services showed major improvements with that area of their business operations showing a healthy profit.

The total sales for food and beverage services was $292,821 in the first quarter with $222,289 in concession sales and $70,532 in catering.

There were 49 events over the first quarter with attendance of 32,216 or a net cap of $9.09 per patron.

After expenses were deducted - including a management incentive of $10,500 - the total net profit was $58,414.

City Manager Jim Puffalt pointed out the strong point in Mosaic Place’s first quarter financial statement was the healthy profit in the food and beverage portion of the ledger.

Mosaic Place received a controversial $150,000 start up loan from the City to pay for training and restock the facility with food and beverages as there was none in the facility after the shutdown due to COVID - 19.

Additionally the issue was further controversial as the City had initially tendered the food and beverage services but in the end decided to take those services in-house with Spectra managing what was called “the City of Moose Jaw” food and beverage services. Spectra had bid on the contract.

Ryan McIvor addresses Council - MJ Independent photo

The Good

On the good side of the balance sheet both the first two shows after the COVID - 19 pandemic shut down concerts and similar events posted a profit for Mosaic Place.

Asked by Councillor Heather Eby financially how the Alice Cooper Concert and The Great Benjamins Circus did Ryan McIvor, Spectra Venue Management's General Manager for Mosaic Place, said both of the events turned a profit for Mosaic Place.

Attendance at the Circus was about 1,700 people with most buying tickets last minute, he said.

“The Circus like any circus, traditional circuses, not Cirque Du Soleil or anything like that, is very much a walk up business. So we certainly saw that in the last three or four days leading into the event. It was well attended and I think it was a great family event. It was a totally different demographic that I have seen in the building,” McIvor said.

“Lots of kids. Lots of families. More so than we have seen before. A mixed review of comments but I think overall it was a great family event.”

The Alice Cooper concert was attended by about 1,800 people on a Sunday night.

“Great event first concert…well attended for a Sunday night. It was great to see live music back in the facility,” McIvor said.

“As we look into the crystal ball when we wrote the budget to where we are now it is very interesting time we are going through. I would say we are on track. We do see some positivity as we keep rolling through but we also see some areas of uncertainty.”

McIcvor said such things as the adding on of the PST in the fall to event tickets as well as the upcoming increase in the provincial minimum wage would have an impact on Mosaic Place’s bottom line.

City manager Jim Puffalt said the facility was “relatively close” budget wise as it should be.

The Bad

Despite showing profits in the food and beverage side and the initial two shows after re-opening following the lifting of the COVID - 19 mandates the facility is slightly more in the red than budgeted.

“Really we are only behind budget by $8,300,” McIvor said when asked about the deficit at Mosaic Place.

He added that he felt the facility was “on track. I think the thing for us is that although we see areas of weakness we also see areas of success. So we see some areas we are doing better and we see some areas where that we did less.”

McIvor said the facility had just come through the pandemic and the attendance level in January and February were decreased.

The turnstyle budget (number of patrons attending events at the facility) was 4,109 less patrons than budgeted at the facility. The budget called for 36,325 patrons while 32,216 patrons actually walked through the Mosaic Place gates.

Mosaic Place is at the present time showing a deficit of $83,752. The budgeted deficit was $75,406 representing a larger than budgeted deficit of $8,346.

On the issue of suite leases there was a budgeted amount of $72,999 while the actual amount brought in over the quarter was $37,050 leaving a budget deficit of $35,949.

McIvor said the deficit was a result of on-going negotiations with a tenant.

“With respect to the suite leases that is part of the on-going discussion with the lease agreement with the team (Moose Jaw Warriors). So we are still in discussions, negotiations with the team so we are just working through those processes at this time.”

The Downright Ugly

In the post Council press conference the issue of Mosaic Place being heavily subsidized reared its ugly head with Mayor Clive Tolley conjuring up the spirit of referendums past to justify the continued subsidization of the facility.

Mayor Clive Tolley at a previous post Council press briefing - MJ Independent file photo

Mayor Tolley was asked by the media what his opinion was Mosaic Place budgeted deficits instead of surpluses.

The Mayor responded that despite the taxpayer subsidy being paid to operate Mosaic Place it is not something unique to Moose Jaw but was a worldwide phenomena.

“All facilities like that are subsidized by the cities that happens to have the facility in their city. WE have seen it throughout the world the cost of these kinds of buildings is being debated because pro teams from there they want a community to pay for a facility (but they cannot make money) so they budget for a deficit and we recognized that when we built that building,” he said.

Mayor Tolley said it was great to have concerts and the two recent events had made money.

“So we can have a Western Hockey League (WHL) team, so we can have big events. There was a circus there just the other day and lots of families attended so those are the kinds of things we have to provide as a community.”

Asked an additional question about the subsidy to Mosaic Place and if it was not in fact throwing good money after bad, a proverbial black hole, the Mayor said he did not see it that way at all.

He conjured up one of the main arguments the proponents of building Mosaic Place - losing the Western Hockey League franchise the Moose Jaw Warriors.

“Can you imagine if we had the Moose Jaw Civic Centre that fantastic building with its character would not have been able to host the Moose Jaw Warriors in the Western Hockey League. It didn’t meet standards for the League (WHL). We had to build a new building or we would have lost our Moose Jaw Warriors. We wouldn’t be having Alice Cooper here…no I think it is an asset to the community,” Mayor Tolley replied going on to point out other events held at Mosaic
Place.

It needs to be noted in the great referendum debates about whether or not to build Mosaic Place the loss of WHL was a major argument put forward by the Yes Side as the need to build a new facility.

On the other side of the argument the No Side said the WHL’s decision about the suitability of the Moose Jaw Civic Centre was only a bluff and the City should call the WHL on it.