Finetuning the art of turning a profit
THE launch of the Gold Coast’s newest outdoor entertainment venue is not without its internal drama.
Tim Minchin’s performance last Saturday was a winner, but some councillors are counting costs.
As they gathered this week for the events, tourism and governance committee meeting, Gold Coast Arts Centre chairperson Robyn Archer and CEO Criena Gehrke had just celebrated by cutting a cake with their staff.
Award-winning composer and comedian Minchin, the first act at the Home of the Arts (HOTA) outdoor centre, in just four days had achieved what is called 70 million “digital impressions”.
Essentially, in dollar terms, it translates to publicity worth $750,000. Council will not reveal what it cost to stage last Saturday night’s launch but the budget did not reach that amount.
“Our investment is a fraction of that,” Ms Archer told councillors.
The art centre leaders have a good news story to tell. About 32 per cent of the fans were from outside the Gold Coast catchment, some from as far as Sydney.
So the new arts space opposite the council chambers at Bundall is already working to reverse a trend where residents drive to Brisbane for entertainment, and encouraging tourists to arrive here to see the city’s muchneeded “shiny new toy”.
Ms Gehrke explained that ticket sales for the next big act to visit – Neil Finn will be here in June – without any promotion other than the launch had already reached 82 per cent.
“If you’d like tickets, please let us know. It goes to show the power of great artists to drive visitors,” she said.
As councillors waded through the financials for the six months to last December, Ms Archer, having a wealth of experience with new ventures, provided some subtext.
“Any business requires strong backing for at least five to 10 years,” she said.
This is the narrative for the new Home of the Arts, and the story’s set up suggests some councillors will hold their nerve about spending while others may not.
Mayor Tom Tate is not required to attend the committee meeting and councillors admit he remains a strong supporter and driver of the cultural precinct.
At the meeting, Councillor Cameron Caldwell referred to the financial pages and asked several probing questions about revenue and costs which put a halt to the celebratory mood.
What concerned the city’s planning chair was the cash flow drop from $4.5 million for the six months to December 2016 to $3.7 million for the same time last year.
So it was a decrease in income of about $800,000.
By contrast, council was providing $5.9 million in grants compared to about $2 million before. Essentially, the financial bottom line was about $2.8 million worse off.
“We’ve spent more and earned less,” Cr Caldwell said.
“I hope that it’s going to be more financially sustainable in the longer term rather than effectively running at a significant loss like that.”
Obviously, some of the expenses were due to building the stage. Some of the loss of revenue was the cafe not operating and disruption to the site which hurt the cinema takings.
Some councillors will want the cultural precinct to make some sort of profit. This is the internal drama to be played out at city hall. For a limited time the Gold Coast Bulletin’s Real Estate magazine will include a special developer flip book to bring you the latest news on Gold Coast development projects.
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Some of these answers will not be known for at least six months after a series of free events are rolled out.
Until then, please someone, can we all have just another piece of chocolate cake?