SaskTel Centre, TCU Place dealing with pandemic deficits

Two of the city's largest entertainment venues have been hit hard by COVID-19. 

Both TCU Place and SaskTel Centre are facing deficits as a result of the global pandemic. While both the venues had productive years planned for 2020, COVID-19 derailed those plans.

During budget deliberations on Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer with TCU Place Tammy Sweeney outline how 2020 was a year of pivoting and adjustment for the downtown concert and convention centre. 

"With a potential 18-month break in service it decimated this industry and we were certainly no exception to that," she said. "We survived by drastically cutting expenses and reducing our labour hours, relying on reserves, which impacts our financial stability moving forward." 

TCU Place originally had 508 events including 41 concerts and 29 conventions, set for this year, but the pandemic saw 380 events lost and a $8.1 million reduction in event revenues, with a projected surplus of over $860,000 turning into a $2.3 million loss.

The concert venue also saw a large portion of its staff laid off as a result of the pandemic, with full-time positions falling to 18 from 63.5 before the pandemic. 

While it's been a hard year for TCU Place, Sweeney says the venue has been working to diversify its revenue streams and noting it's also the first venue in the province to apply for membership with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, which shares and reviews international best practices on how venues can open safely.

TCU Place is expecting to record a deficit of $2.1 million in 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and it'll be covering the gap through its reserve.

SaskTel is expected to see a loss of $3.6 million in 2020 and is facing down a $1.6 million deficit for 2021. SaskTel Centre board chair Blair Davidson called 2020 the "year of turmoil" for the concert venue. 

In total, 800 part-time staff and eight full-time staff were let go due to the pandemic, but Davidson said it worked to ensure people were gainfully employed for as long as possible. 

"The trick for us is determining how it's going to look in the future," he said.

"We know right now that we're probably shut down for another three months at least, I would suspect longer into September, maybe even in 2022, which creates obviously a lot of issues for us, when it comes to what to do with our facility." 

Officials say SaskTel Centre has the resources in place to cover losses experienced by the venue and it's working to expand its revenue streams, as they're still using the venue for things like recreational hockey leagues and as a centre for flu vaccinations.

Davidson said while 2020 has been tough, it's also been a year of opportunities, as the concert venue installed new wifi infrastructure and a new point-of-sales system in conjunction with its concession partners.

Both of the venues say a large number of fans who purchased tickets for the events that have been cancelled have held on to their tickets in hopes of a rescheduling rather than opting for a refund.

The deficits recorded by TCU Place and SaskTel Centre were just two of several revenue projections that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Saskatoon is currently working to address a financial gap of $21.8 million caused in large part by reduced revenues and increased expenditures related to COVID-19. 

City councillors are currently in budget deliberations, which include examining the possibility of adjusting finances and using more than $19 million in federal funding to cover the additional costs.