ThunderBay Community Auditorium Almost 40 Years Old!

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How do you choose the shows that come to the ThunderBay Community Auditorium?

“ There are a few different ways we get the acts here.The most important way is we are in constant contact with agents, promoters- anyone in the business involved in doing live entertainment. We can go out and buy the show, pay the artist fee and present it ourselves entirely at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium risk. We can do a co presentation and in that case we might work with a promoter and we will do a split of revenue of 50 or 60%where we share the risk. The third way is rentals where we get the Live Nations or AEG concerts and also smaller promoters. It looks like any other show here with our staff but they are renting the building and taking the risk to promote the show. Another version of that is the local groups such as a dance studios, the university, college and high schools that do graduations here and rent the building. Some don’t even involve tickets sales. The Symphony is a regular renter if you will. The Thunder Bay Community Auditorium first time, was sold out and we made a small profit.The last time here it was a rental when a promoter took their whole Canadian tour. That show didn’t sell as well. The ideal balance is to have some co pay events, some that are yours and the rentals.”

Covid and ongoing deficits as they had reduced our funding in the past. They are writing off close to $2 million and giving us some funds to startup- extending a loan for $ 500,000. We also have the option to request up to another $ 500,000 if we want to do something big- something like Bluesfest that would allow us to go out and secure the acts. In the 2019 Bluesfest tickets.The artists need all the sophisticated reporting that comes with some of these systems. Our previous provider tried to get a huge increase in their costs which forced us to look around and many of the other halls like us talked about TicketMaster, who are the leaders. Their fees are actually quite a bit lower than if we stayed with this old company and taken the increases. We want to keep those costs as affordable as possible. Ticketmaster were the best value and their technical support has been great.The ease of use is good.We also now have in person ticket sales here Wednesdays from12:30 to 5:30 and three hours before each show.

Our use of Ticketmaster has made it easier for LiveNation, the largest promoter in the world to use us as an example. AEG is the second largest promoter and they are all set up for Ticketmaster. It will help us generate more shows.” was really built with them in mind and we consider them to be our partner in things that happen around here. We try to give extra consideration to the Symphony, as they are a main reason why we are here. They help us as well moving something for us or we do that for them.”

Tell me about yourbackground. What has been youreducation in the field Trevor?

So you can go afterany shows you want at the ThunderBay Community Auditorium Trevor?

“ There are a few factors that limit what you can do when 1497 seats is our capacity. If we put the pit in it can be bumped up to 1625 people because of the standing room. So you are not going to get Bruce Springsteen here unless something was different. The artist fees can be very high and the production values can be expensive.

The Thunder Bay Community Auditorium is a business here so we have to try to earn revenue. That is part of the challenge. We are a registered non profit so our goal isn't necessarily to make tons of money here. Our goal is to break even and maybe do a little bit better than that. It is an expensive building to operate. Some of the best shows I’ve seen here didn’t make us any money. For instance ZZ Top came here the

Arecent big change at the ThunderBay Community Auditorium is you are now independent from the City of Thunder Bay as an organization?

“There was lot of confusion in the past as to what we really were. My paycheck came from the city but their position was they were providing a service to us providing payroll, HR and also acted like our bank. It was kind of a tricky situation for the city in particular because they had no control over what we were doing as we were our own organization on one hand but they were the bank and also employing us. It didn’t fit with what they were doing anymore. We don’t have to pay municipal taxes and lease the building. They want us to more or less run it on their behalf. They still provide us funding through the Youth and Cultural Funding program as they also do with Magnus or the Symphony. We get just below $800,000 annually which helps us operate. In Covid we realized it is still an expensive building to operate even if it is just sitting here without activity. Heat and electricity and ongoing maintenance say with the screw jacks in the stage add up.”

“The city wrote off our deficit due to for example, the artist fees were some where around $1 million. Our priority is the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium and we want to get back to where we were before taking on the risk of say the Bluesfest. You have to rebuild it. We have talked to some private people we could partner with on large events.”

“We do have a board of directors with two city councilors including Mayor Ken Boshcoff. We have a pretty good team now and are trying to hire a development coordinator here. The other staff have stepped up and did other things as well.The set up now is more clear. There isn’t this question are we city employees or not. Is it a city organization or not. For example we have had to hire our own accounting provider now instead of using the city.”

The move to Ticketmasterat the ThunderBay Community Auditorium has been talked about quite a bit recently?

“ Ticketmaster have had some bad press with the Taylor Swift thing. At the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium we need a box office ticket provider system if you will.We need software to sell

“Icame out of high school and thought about law or teaching and ended up getting an HBAin PoliSci and BAin History at Lakehead University and was leaning towards teaching. One of my Poli Sci professors saw me performing at the Outpost for a special event with a pick up band. He said you should be taking arts administration and I said what is that. I’m pretty sure that is the type of thing that would get you working at a place like the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium he said. That caught my attention so I went to Confederation College in their Arts Administration program and won the Dean’s Medal for highest marks in my class. Iended up working in marketing at North Superior Publishing Inc., then the city and the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. There have been four general managers at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium since it’s inception.”

What’s on the horizon at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium?

“ We want to just keep getting the shows coming in and get back to our normal numbers. Many of the artists are trying to make up for Covid times with higher artist fees which makes it harder to book shows, even with artists we have had in the building before. Normally we have charged $35 to $150 and $20 in fees so it means that ticket prices could be higher. It is a competitive environment.”