Yuk Yuk’s president angry over Falls club closure
Yuk Yuk’s isn’t laughing about how its 10-year relationship with Casino Niagara came to an end last month.
In early January, management at Casino Niagara closed the comedy chain’s Niagara Falls club as part of a $7-million upgrade to the facility. A casino spokesperson said the space was needed for “new development ideas.”
The abrupt closure was a surprise to Yuk Yuk’s owners, who had shows booked for the next three months. Now, the company is pondering a lawsuit against Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) for the hit against its reputation and to recoup its expenses for three months.
An angry Yuk Yuk’s president Jeff Silverman says OLG agreed to pay operational costs for 90 days after it terminated its agreement on Jan. 3, but has since balked at invoices Yuk Yuk’s has submitted.
Silverman says about $60,000 in costs were filed, but OLG has indicated it will pay less than half that.
Among the expenses were payments for contracted comedians, refunded tickets and advertising.
“They have the better of us, and I don’t have the money to fight them,” says Silverman, the partner of Yuk Yuk’s founder Mark Breslin.
In a letter dated Jan. 3, legal counsel for Casino Niagara informed Silverman the licence agreement with Yuk Yuk’s would come to an end effective April 3. “We would like to thank Yuk Yuk’s for its service and look forward to working together to wind down the operation in an orderly fashion,” the letter stated.
Instead, the club was closed immediately and all shows through January, February and March were cancelled. Silverman says OLG then removed all Yuk Yuk’s signage, returned it to the company’s head office, then sent a $799.55 invoice for the shipping charges.
Silverman also says Yuk Yuk’s has had a “month to month” lease with the casino for the past five years, ever since fears Casino Niagara would close following the province’s Drummond Report in 2012, which recommended one of the city’s two casinos be shuttered.
Asked about the lease agreement and other issues related to Yuk Yuk’s, Niagara Casinos director of marketing services Jennifer Ferguson responded via e-mail: “It is our policy not to discuss details of contracts with third party companies, but I can confirm that we have ended the agreement in compliance with the contract.”
Silverman is dismayed a 10-year business partnership has ended so bitterly.
“I can’t believe these people would do this. All of a sudden we’re nothing after 10 years of bending over backwards.”
Yuk Yuk’s has had a near continuous presence in Niagara Falls for 30 years, starting in the former Maple Leaf Village (now the site of Casino Niagara).
Silverman expects it to continue. He says Breslin met with several hotel owners in the city recently, and has three parties interested in hosting a new club.
“I’m not worried,” he says. “Right across the country, we’ve always done this. If we want to go somewhere we put an ad in the paper, we negotiate with people, and we open a club.”