While city administration was unable to tell city council what Cash for Chaos was during the Aug. 24 regular meeting, sleuthing by the Moose Jaw Express has turned up the answer.
Spectra Venue Management, which operates Mosaic Place, paid out $50,635.26 between October and December 2019 to an American promoter after the arena hosted the Offspring/Sum 41 concert on Nov. 22, 2019.
Through a freedom of information request, the Express found that Spectra paid $37,125 in U.S. dollars to an American company with a bank account in Beverly Hills, Calif. That amount then became $49,257.45 in Canadian dollars based on an exchange rate of $1.3268 as of October 2019.
Meanwhile, an additional $1,025.84 in U.S. dollars was transferred to another American bank account — destination unknown — on Dec. 11, 2019. That amount then became $1,377.81 in Canadian dollars based on an exchange rate of $1.3431 in that month.
As part of this second payment, 27 floor tickets worth $3,970.60 were sold through a VIP tour package, while 11 bowl tickets worth $1,022.60 were sold as part of a VIP tour package, for $4,993 overall.
Since Spectra paid $1,377.81 in Canadian funds to the American promotor for the VIP ticket packages, it’s possible that it kept the rest of the money as revenue.
Ryan MacIvor, district general manager of Spectra and Mosaic Place, confirmed that both payments were related to the November concert. The payment in October was the first amount of money sent to the event promotor, while the additional payment in December was the final wrap-up for the event.
However, if this money was for the concert, why was it termed Cash for Chaos in the municipality’s 2019 public accounts report?
“It could be a wide variety of things,” MacIvor said. “It could be a business name; it could be a legal name; it could be a name that they’re doing business as. It could be a wide variety of things.”
This is likely the best explanation of what Cash for Chaos is because an internet search for that term leads to a company called Cash 4 Chaos, which sells clothing ranging from rockabilly, to psychobilly, to metal, to punk, to hardcore, to gothic.
