City eyes breaks on Memorial Centre fees
In anticipation of empty stands, compensation being considered
Since there may be no fans allowed in the stands at the Memorial Centre when hockey games resume, the city may have to make it up to the arena’s concession operators as well as to long-term holders of private box suites.
The city-owned PMC closed to ticketed events in March as a safety measure in the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. The Peterborough Petes haven’t resumed playing since.
Although there’s a tentative plan for Ontario Hockey League games to start up again that has been twice postponed, there won’t likely be fans allowed in the arena.
That will mean no business for concession operators and no way for people who’ve reserved a private suite over multiple hockey seasons to use their premium seats.
At a committee meeting on Monday, councillors will consider some potential solutions.
Regarding the food and beverage concessions, city staff recommends giving operator Compass Group Canada Ltd. a break on the commission it was supposed to pay to the city this year.
Under an agreement, the city was owed a commission of at least $132,104 between June 2020 and June 2021 (50 per cent of which the city would have shared with the Petes and the Lakers).
But Compass projects losses of $700,000 between June and December, and business won’t likely improve much this year with no fans at hockey games and limited capacity at any other ticketed events that might be allowed later in 2021.
In response, city staff recommends allowing Compass to pay the city 10 per cent of any food and beverage sales they may earn between now and June 7 and then start paying the full commission to the city again once annual sales reach $821,000.
Meanwhile the PMC has 24 private box suites, 14 of which are for people who’ve reserved them for use over several years. But those fans may not be able to access their suites at all, this hockey season.
A separate city staff report recommends waiving their fees from Sept. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021 — unless there are some ticketed events later in the year, in which case suite-holders would pay a portion of their fees. If the fees for the 14 suiteholders end up being waived for the full year, the staff report says it will mean the city loses $162,145 plus HST (25 per cent of which the city would give to the Petes, under an agreement).
The committee meeting will be held electronically on Monday at 6 p.m. and will be livestreamed.