Despite facing continued pandemic challenges in early 2021, Mosaic Place bounced back in the year’s second half and returned to almost full operations.
City administration and building manager Spectra Venue Management Services presented the venue’s 2021 annual report during the Aug. 22 regular city council meeting. Both entities celebrated the return of regular activities and new partnerships formed.
Mosaic Place is now the Moose Jaw Events Centre — also known as the Multiplex — because the partnership between the city and The Mosaic Company is over.
A great year
Ryan MacIvor, Spectra general manager, said 2021 was a great year and Mosaic Place made positive strides coming out of COVID-19 and working toward “some normalcy” while addressing new challenges.
The pandemic and public health restrictions affected Mosaic Place’s ability to host large events, meetings, conferences and its main tenant events during the first half of 2021, he said. However, whenever the building was in use, management focused on the health and safety of staff, tenants and user groups.
Return of some activities
Even though many people were uncomfortable returning to a live-event setting, Mosaic Place staff offered an easy process to help people come back, MacIvor said. Even with lower attendance, there were still many highlights from last year.
For example, 6,499 curlers took part in 223 league nights and 450 curlers participated in eight bonspiels.
Furthermore, Spectra formed new partnerships to brand the Moose Jaw Carpet One Premium Level, the Crown Royal Lounge and the Saskatchewan Spirits Bar on the concourse with local distilleries.
Also, Spectra took over providing food and beverage services and formed new partnerships with community restaurants, while it helped launch new ticketing platform SaskTix to support the Warriors, the Prince Albert Raiders and Moose Jaw Cultural Centre.
Since many people could not enjoy live music, Mosaic Place expanded its partnership with local media to showcase new artists every Friday. Meanwhile, concerts scheduled for 2021 were moved to this year and performed better than expected.
“Our team did an amazing job this past year planning, preparing and re-opening to the public and I am very proud of the Herculean effort put in by our entire staff this year,” MacIvor said.
Finances
The report showed that Mosaic Place’s revenues last year were $1.36 million and expenses were $2.45 million, leaving a deficit of $1,085,824. However, after factoring in the $1.23 million subsidy from the city and the management fee and incentive, that deficit shrunk to $16,008.
“The numbers do show an impact of COVID on the business … . Our business is predicated upon people coming to the building, purchasing tickets, eating and drinking and walking through the venue,” MacIvor added.
Report highlights
Other highlights from the annual report include:
- Mosaic Place became a Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC)-accredited star building based on its cleaning, disinfection and infection prevention program
- Staff painted more than 3,060 square metres (34,000 square feet) of the building
- Staff repaired and re-covered all 161 high-top chairs
- Community groups — like rec hockey — booked 1,083.5 hours of ice rentals
- The WHL and AAA Warriors had 424 ice bookings and used 1,497 hours of ice time
- The AAA Warriors played 12 home games and had a total attendance of 1,500 people
- The WHL Warriors played 23 home games and had a total attendance of 31,532 people
- SaskTix processed more than 7,000 tickets online
- Mosaic Place added 157 followers on Facebook and 39 followers on Instagram but lost 76 followers on Twitter; total followers as of Dec. 31, 2021, were 16,468, 1,444, and 4,458, respectively
Council inquiries
MacIvor told council that the entertainment industry has seen a resurgence in artists touring and in hyper-competition to attract them. While not every event has translated into high ticket sales, this is because the “flood of artists and events” has sometimes competed for the same demographics.
“From an industry perspective, we’re excited. We see opportunity,” he continued. “We (also) see some turmoil ahead … . But I do believe people want to get out and do things. I just think they’re being smart with their purchases.”
Coun. Jamey Logan agreed that the market is in turmoil — especially with inflation — pointing to low attendance at Roughrider games and the World Junior hockey tournament. He hoped the Multiplex’s 2023 budget reflected that public wariness and Spectra planned accordingly.
“With the finances (of Mosaic Place), this is what we thought was coming. We are not surprised by any of this,” he continued, noting advertising and ticket sales were both down last year by $300,000 and $68,000, respectively, versus 2020.
Advertising revenue declined because nothing was coming in from the curling centre or hockey rink, said MacIvor. Meanwhile, ticket revenues were lower because they are front-loaded and arrive at the start of the year.
The next regular city council meeting is Monday, Sept. 12.
