City council loaned the Moose Jaw Events Centre $100,000 last year to support the in-house food and beverage services program, but it doesn’t appear the venue will repay the money.
Council awarded Spectra Venue Management Services the contract to supply food and beverages at then-Mosaic Place in June 2021. However, the management company asked for financial support two months later to start the service.
Council voted 5-1 to provide up to $150,000 for the service — Spectra used $100,000 — with the expectation that the Multiplex would repay the money by Dec. 31 of that year.
Now, it doesn’t look as if that payback will occur.
During the recent regular council meeting, city administration presented a second-quarter financial update that included information about the Events Centre’s finances. Specifically, up to June 30, the venue had netted $122,773 in profits from the food and beverage services.
During a media scrum afterward, reporters asked city manager Jim Puffalt where in the Multiplex budget update the $100,000 was and whether it would be repaid. One reporter wondered if it was “safe to assume” that the loan wouldn’t be repaid, while the actual net profit was $22,773.
“Yeah, that’s probably a safe assumption,” Puffalt replied, but deferred to finance director Brian Acker for confirmation. “I think it’s probably preliminary to talk about it (but) they’re doing well comparable to the budget right now, but it’s still early in the year, so we’re trying to hedge a little bit.”
When asked if Spectra had repaid the money to city hall, Acker replied, “Not at this point.”
When asked if the $100,000 was essentially now part of the building subsidy since it wasn’t in the finance documents, Acker replied, “In effect, it’s part of the subsidy, so we will hopefully have a reduced subsidy. Less subsidy is coming back. It’s money that we don’t have to pay.”
City administration believes it is premature to talk about repaying the loan based on the second-quarter report because the Multiplex “may have issues with cash flow,” said Puffalt.
The Events Centre spent $17,763 to acquire the SaskTix regional ticketing program, and between January and June, netted $58,510 in revenue, the media said. Considering the venue netted $40,847 more than budgeted, reporters wondered if that was sustainable long-term.
“The numbers show us very good things this quarter for the Moose Jaw Events Centre. We talk a lot about taking care of business and doing things that generate funding for the place,” said Puffalt. “As Mr. Acker said, food and beverage is sitting at $133,000 in profit. We know that we forwarded some money to get it up and running.”
Keeping food and beverage services in-house allowed Spectra and city hall to control those parts of the business that make money, he continued. SaskTix is a good example of that belief, while the in-house food and beverage service is generating more revenues now than when it was contracted out, which is exciting.
The city will reap many benefits from its planning once the food and beverage service is around for a full year and more people return to the building to attend events, Puffalt said.
“We’re pretty excited to see those types of things happening,” he added. “And that’s what we had proposed when we went this way, was to get events back in the place, take control of the business partners that we can make money at, and that’s what we’re doing.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 26.
