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Mosaic Place still financially in the red despite getting full yearly subsidy

City hall provided all four quarterly subsidies to Mosaic Place to help it hire more staff, perform additional maintenance and purchase food and drink supplies.
Mosaic Place
Mosaic Place

City hall has provided Spectra Venue Management Services with its entire yearly subsidy to operate Mosaic Place, but even that full support hasn’t pushed the building’s revenues back into the black. 

As of July 31, Mosaic Place had expenses of $1,086,812, compared to the forecasted budget of $1,070,199. Therefore, the difference between these two figures is minus $16,613.

The major component of this issue is the quarterly subsidy that the municipality provides the venue to operate, finance director Brian Acker explained during the recent regular city council meeting. City hall provided Spectra with all four quarterly subsidies to help the building manager get Mosaic Place running and operational again. This included staffing costs and additional maintenance and supply — food and drink — costs.

Also included in that subsidy is a contribution to Mosaic Place’s equipment reserve account.

“It is slightly over the overall subsidy level in a small amount of $16,000,” he said. “Right now, we look at that as the final subsidy payment, so we wouldn’t have any additional ones. That said, things change — certainly, things change with the pandemic and that could be a different situation.”

Every city-owned building came through the roughest patches during the pandemic, said city manager Jim Pufflat. As a result, city administration is excited to re-open every municipal-owned venue by the end of September, including the Kinsmen Sportsplex rink. 

“There have been a lot of revenue issues we experienced over this year. We’re glad we came through them. We’re tickled pink that we are able to be open and we can stay open,” he added. “We encourage everyone to get vaccinated (and wear masks). These are things we are doing to keep our facilities open.”

As part of the second-quarter financial report that city administration provided during the council meeting, an income-and-expense statement report for Mosaic Place was also included.

From January to July 31, the recreation venue had held eight meetings/conferences over 11 days that attracted 120 people. In addition, 302 ice rentals brought in 5,497 people, while 13 other events over 18 days brought in 1,289 attendees.   

In total, 9,426 people attended an event or activity at Mosaic Place during the first seven months of this year.

All these events generated $373,699 in revenue, compared to the expected budgeted amount of $861,183, a difference of minus $487,484.

Total expenses from January to July 31 were $904,761, which was less than the budgeted estimate of $1.36 million. This means — based on the difference between the two — Mosaic Place saved $462,950 in expenses. 

Other expenses included COVID-19 cleaning measures for $11,453 (unbudgeted), Ticket Rocket refund gift cards for $9,512 (unbudgeted), and the management fee of $77,462 (the budgeted estimated expense was $55,825). 

After considering all income and expenses, the total adjusted net loss for Mosaic Place to July 31 was $629,189, compared to the estimated loss of $562,353. 

The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 27. 

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