The Brad Paisley concert at Mosaic Place was an outstanding entertainment evening.
From the first song to the guitar he autographed onstage and handed to a young girl in the front row to his fishing song I'm Gonna Miss Her to the remarkable video screen, this was a fantastic show.
The video screens captured members of the large audience enjoying the night, featured global scenes and turned in a cool tribute to the Grand Ole Opry stars.
Opening act, McKenzie Porter, showed why she had two number one singles back to back. Alberta star Brett Kissel certainly has grown even more from the time we saw him showcase in Saskatoon at age 15,
This was the end of the tour, suddenly cut short by coronavirus precautions.
Paisley suggested we in Moose Jaw are lucky to live in the middle of nowhere (supposedly avoiding the virus) and invited everyone to forget their troubles and enjoy the night. We did enjoy.
But we still had some nagging troubles that had nothing to do with Paisley’s performance.
We along with hundreds of others paid full price for our tickets. We were disappointed to see these tickets selling at half price in the weeks before the show. Guess we just got sucked in.
That discounting practice for concerts is unfair and self-defeating. Once concert-goers catch on — and this discount deal has been offered at Mosaic before — fans will wait until the last minute for discounted ticket prices.
This ticket price discounting, done to put bums in the seats when fans hold off, comes to us from the American company Spectra Management contracted by city council after the Mosaic Place board scandal.
There are a limited number of Canadian managers who can manage concert venues but when the Mosaic Place board scandal broke I’m told the word got out not to touch Moose Jaw with a 10-foot pole.
There would be no need to discount Brad Paisley tickets had Spectra not booked two country music shows back-to-back without considering capacity of the market to pay for seats.
The Bamford Redneck show, announced in November before Brad Paisley’s concert, was a success, partly from tickets given for Christmas.
Days after announcing the Redneck concert Mosaic Place management announced the Brad Paisley concert to happen the day before the Redneck event.
It seems as if the Paisley concert was tacked on by Spectra head office to fit the schedule of dozens of facilities managed by the company. Certainly it seems no consideration was given to the Moose Jaw market’s capacity to fill two country concerts back-to back, thus the ticket discounting.
There is no loss to Spectra if these shows lose money. Moose Jaw taxpayers pick up the losses with no limit in the contract.
Taxpayers are stuck with this peculiar arrangement for five years.
Another troubling matter at the concert was our seats. The row of floor seats we had tickets in no longer existed when we arrived.
Middle rows were largely unsold. To make things look better, management eliminated rows of seats and moved fans around to other seats.
Staff was great about moving us to new seats and meeting our needs. Why move fans to start with? This was the third concert in a row where our seating was switched in this manner. One time we were moved four times.
Great concert, but arena management leaves us in a sour mood.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
