By: Diane Benjamin
February events – net profit on each event is listed
Bacon a Beer Fest – 12,230.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15976
8 tickets were comp’d, I wonder to who?
Hockey 2/17 – 6,231.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15978
452 tickets Comp
Hockey 2/7 – 1,109.92 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15928
384 tickets Comp
Guns and Hoses – 2,799.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15926
0 Comp
IHSA Cheerleading – 46,391.53 http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15830
302 Comp
Then there was the Brad Paisley concert – ($38,068.55)
These comments are on the event report: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15974
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The comments failed to mention they sold floor tickets by accident for $10 each. I don’t know how many because a FOIA to the City of Bloomington for that information was denied:
Remember when VenuWorks was hired and how transparent they were going to be? I remember being told VenuWork would answer FOIA requests. The City should have demanded that information from them. The “no accountability” continues.
They sold 4762 tickets and comp’d another 1009.
Since I don’t know how many $10 tickets were sold and how much they should have been, I don’t know if this concert would have at least broken even without the error.
February still had an event profit of $30,694.49.
Unfortunately, that won’t cover the payroll, benefits, the electricity bill on all the other operating expenses.
Arena’s make most of their money from October through March.
When will anybody realize it was a mistake to build it and finally fix the error?
From 8/1/17-10/31/17 VenuWorks lost ($300,701.09) http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15490
From 5/1/17-7/41/17 VenuWorks lost ($258,023.15) http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=15488
The report for 11/1/17 through 1/31/18 isn’t posted.
It looks like the un-audited loss will be at least $1 million for the year. Evidently that’s fine with your Mayor and Council. Your tax increase will cover it.
There were dozens or more $10 tickets sold in the back sections of the arena on purpose, as well as the back part of the floor, it was no accident. They were listed on Ticketmaster the week of the show. They were marked down from the $30-$40 range to fill in the crowd. This concert was brought in too quickly after the previous two, and did not sell nearly as well. I assume the discounted tickets were done to bring people in to buy alcohol. VenuWorks should have known better than to bring back Brad Paisly so soon after his last show.
I know several people who went and they sat floor for 10 dollars. They also commented that there was no ID check going on when they were purchasing alcohol. I know its second hand but all independently were suprised at the lack of carding.
That gives me lots of questions with no answers
Shouldn’t VenuWorks be responsible for making up the difference between what they sold the tickets for and what the tickets actually cost? If those pricing issues were not covered in the contract, there is no accountability for VenuWorks “mistakes.” If country music concerts aren’t drawing big there, nothing will.
MAYBE a BIG meteorite will hit the arena and turn it into crumbs. Hopefully the meteorite will be large enough (and survive) that we can sell pieces of it to museums, collectors, etc and recover SOME of the loss we have incurred on this WHITE elephant!
This is about the same thinking as selling out a Brad Paisley concert…