Council considering new DFFH strategy Discussion centres on plan to actively pursue entertainment options at Mosaic Place

The Downtown Facility and Field House was back on the agenda at the most recent meeting of Moose Jaw City Council on Oct. 9.

Moose Jaw city manager Jim Puffalt – who took over as DFFH manager when the board of directors was dissolved in August – presented a plan to change how concerts and other major shows are pursued for Mosaic Place, with the idea of increasing the number of higher-end acts at the arena. The plan includes a contingency fund to cover losses in case shows don’t sell at the level expected.

“Since my time here, the community has expressed an interest in having concerts and events to be held back at Mosaic Place,” Puffalt said. “The Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce has had some discussions over the summer and strategic planning, branding and tourism talked the importance of economic drivers for the community.

“As council can imagine, there’s quite a different structure when it comes to concerts and events at an arena and I think this is a long-standing issue in the community and if we’re going to go through with it, the community needs to go in with their eyes wide open.” Puffalt’s plan includes a limit of $150,000 for shows directly pursued by Mosaic Place, with anything over that amount to go to executive committee for an in-camera session and discussion.

The plan would also include a $100,000 fund to cover any losses the DFFH might experience from shows that don’t sell as well as planned. Reports on the success level of concerts would be grouped into a yearly report as opposed to a show-by-show basis.

“If we report back to stakeholders after every show and say this one was successful or not, in some of my experience, the shows that were up to $150,000 made money and shows that were around $25,000 lost money,” Puffalt said. “So, we have to be very careful about what we go after but at the same time we have to be aggressive.”

Coun. Scott McMann – who was part of the DFFH board until it’s dissolution – pointed out that the DFFH had always been pursuing events at Mosaic Place, but the size of the Moose Jaw market in western Canada was a drawback.

“We didn’t turn any concerts down,” he said. “We looked at other venues and our activities weren’t a lot different than those. I just want to make sure people are aware the previous board wasn’t turning things down and from having spent a couple years on that board, I’m a little concerned about the word ‘aggressively’, I feel ‘prudent’ might more of a proper term.”

Former DFFH board chair Coun. Brian Swanson went even further, outright condemning the idea of paying a premium for Mosaic Place events.

“The board that was dissolved spent a great amount of time coming up to speed on concert production, and the idea that we weren’t interested in having concerts is just balderdash,” he said. “What we were interested in were concerts that wouldn’t lose money.

“When I see the words ‘aggressively pursue’ and ‘pay a premium’, those are euphemisms for overpay. Venues our size in Western Canada, the opportunities aren’t that great. But if you want to overpay for something, there will be people lining up at your door... It’s voodoo economics to think that the taxpayer should lose money on concerts and somehow that stimulates the economy.”

Coun. Chris Warren had earlier suggested any decision on aggressive pursuit of events be tabled until the current governance situation with the DFFH was resolved – slated to happen in early November – and Mayor Fraser Tolmie made a motion as such. The plan was tabled.

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Mayor Tolmie’s notice of motion from the previous council meeting that all executive committee meetings be held in council chambers and be broadcast and recorded effective immediately was officially passed. The first executive committee meeting in council chambers took place that evening.

Any in-camera discussions will take place in the adjacent Scoop Lewry room.

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The concept plan for development of the Westheath subdivision on South Hill was adopted after being tabled at the Aug. 30 meeting, although council approval will be needed to authorize any future subdivision expansion construction.