[First published April 13]
The provincial Department of Tourism spent $600,000 on last year’s Paul McCartney concert on the Halifax Common, and floated private promoter Harold MacKay with a $3.5 million cheque to cover McCartney’s artist fee. The payments have not previously been acknowledged publicly.
Department spokesperson Tina Thibeau confirms that expenditures for the concert included $300,000 for “in kind” contributions, primarily marketing and advertising, and an additional $300,000 “loaned” to Trade Centre Limited, the provincial crown corporation charged with hosting large events, for “logistical support” of the concert. That loan, however, was not repaid. The Trade Centre Limited loan was to be paid back through ticket sales, which were handled through Ticket Atlantic, a TCL agency, but ticket sales never reached the agreed threshold for payback, explains Thibeau.
Thibeau does not know what the threshold ticket sales level was. Media reports immediately after the concert spoke of 50,000 and even 60,000 people attending the concert, but a source with knowledge of actual sales figures confirms that only 26,000 tickets were sold. The source is granted anonymity because he is not authorized to publicly reveal sales figures.
The $3.5 million cheque to Harold McKay was cut because MacKay could not privately cover McCartney’s upfront fee. The full amount was recovered through ticket sales, but the payment raises questions about the province carrying risk for a private business.
In addition to the provincial expenditures, the city of Halifax allocated $150,000 towards the McCartney concert in in-kind costs, primarily covering policing costs. Also, HRM’s deputy CAO Wayne Anstey revealed last week that the city spent $45,000 on an electrical generator for the concert, bringing total city costs to $195,000.
Not including the $3.5 million float to MacKay, taxpayer expenditures for the McCartney concert therefore totalled $795,000, or over $30 per sold ticket.
Trade Centre Limited president Scott Ferguson is out of town and could not be reached for comment for this story. Harold MacKay at Power Promotions did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
Correction 2:50pm: city staff now informs me the $45,000 generator cost were included in the $150,000 HRM costs.
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2010.
Whoah…
If a promoter can’t cover the costs, then why are they a promoter? Isn’t that the point? If the city/province will take all the monetary risk, then I’ll be a damn concert promoter and bring huge bands here, too.
There’s also no way only 26 000 tickets were sold. Unless they let a lot of people in for free, there were more than 26k people at that show.
Good work. So much for the myth of huge crowds. Not hard to calculate the size of the crowd from any aerial photo,
Um, it’s Tina Thibeau not Tebo.
There were definitely more than 26K people at the show but they must have given out a crapload of tickets in order to fill the Commons!!
Astounding! Did we get any interest on the loan or was it interest free? You always hear of the government saying they should be more business-like, so why not have a fee to borrow money?
I don’t want to pay for this type of thing again. How do I go about making sure I don’t have too.
That generator broke during the concert and it took nearly an hour to start up again!
Ugh! Imagine the city paid that $195,000 equally to each band that plays a show in Halifax! Assuming 3650 shows per year (10 per day), that would be $217 per show! Now that’s some money well spent, and would really help foster local talent (hell, people could actually make a living playing music!). IMAGINE THAT!
It’s pretty unbelievable that the government paid the deposit for Power Promotions. If they don’t have the capital to float the show then why are they promoting a show this big? Was the loan secured against assets belonging to PP’s principals? The whole concept of government subsidizing the risks of for-profit companies is just nuts.
Nova Scotians ripped off again, the beat goes on and on….
Hey, Paul McCartney, seal hugger and insipid “artist” send my my $30.
I thought this was private! What if those millions, or any of it was lost? This is crap. The city should not spend one more dime beefing up the damn Commons for what is basically a dick-out game with Moncton. Nova Scotia can afford this & the whole MLA heist, and then we are paying more tax? Unbelievable.
Just 26,000 tickets sold? How much did we spend per person, counting the lost use of the space for the two weeks prior, and who knows how many weeks after? Is this really a “common” use when less than 3% of the population of the Province attend?
That is two full nights at the metro centre, almost. With no damage to the common, and in a facility where if it rains, no one gets pneumonia.
I wonder what percentage of those 26,000 were in hotel rooms that might otherwise have been empty? And how many ate in downtown restaurants above what normal sales would be on the same night?
The economics don’t appear to make much sense. At least not enough to justify risking a few million dollars of public funds to let others make a profit.
Complain all you want, but you can’t hold the artist responsible for any of this!
26K people…..slow down…..i was there and there was more then that there. I have been to a few 60K concerts and there was an easy 50K for sir paul. It was the best night this dump of a city has seen in forever so I don’t give a shit what it cost. We need more.
26,000 fans.
That is as many as will be at Anfield next season as they battle for a place between 5th & 12th of the Premier League.
It was a very good night when Pavarotti sold out the Cohen, no help from the taxpayer for that concert.
Another great piece of investigating by the coast. Too bad “other” media outlets didn’t put the effort into getting at the truth. If truth was fully known I would be shocked if we didn’t find sales figures and tax dpllar donations to any and all events around here are fudged. I know during a recent world hockey tournament I had free tickets offered from at least three sources. Couldn’t sell them so they gave them away trying to fill the rink. Congratulations to Tim Bousquet on another great job, Right up there with your public money private spending you did on the Commonwealth games.
A lot of whingers here! Halifax attracting Sir Paul should be applauded as is the Black Eyed Peas. NS and its Capital stands for diversity and opportunity. Why are people so eager to jump on the HRM?
Great great work! Thank you for this information.
We really have to concentrate here and separate our our feelings about Paul McCartney and having a good time at concert from the clearly flawed public policy at play here.
Look seriously at these numbers.
The government can not sustain continuing in this direction no matter how awesome the concert act is.
The point seems to be that only 26,000 tickets were sold. That begs the question of who the other 10,000-20,000 people out there were, and why we paid for them to come for free.
If they only sold 26,000 tickets at $136.00 per that’s $3,536,000 Subtract the $3,500,000 loan that leaves $36.000. That covered set up, rentals, roustabouts, porta-cans, fencing, security, advertising, Free seats for the anointed ones, ticket booths and workers , taking down and repairing the commons etc etc etc? Unless Sir Paul paid for this out of his share there isn’t enough to do the job. I wonder how much Hollis St. and City Hall put in in total/
Better yet how many tax dollars will be flushed down the porta-can on this summers line up? I wonder if they’ll front us the cash to promote a concert. Good deal when it’s all tax dollars at risk.
GazLa Preston
Atracting them is no big deal. all you need if the money.
The biggest “honest”concert in the history of Halifax was Rod Stewart on the hill back in the early 90’s. This concert hit the 40,000 mark without ticket giveaways and subsidies. There were less than 40,000 at the Rolling Stones but the local media reported the promoter’s claim of 50,000. Thank you Mr. Bousquet for seeking the truth.
blah
Dave Chapman I think you are right that you can’t hold an artist responsible for this but no one is saying that in the first place. What the new premier is saying is correct the provincial taxpayer bore the Lions share of risk and like any holders of Shock in any venture we are entitled to full disclosure of all economic activity from this. If MR. MacKay is a Bona Fide Promoter then if should be his 3.5 Million Backstopping this plus his company should paying the city for this site and all expenses for this event .
What would happen if this was a flop ? What Security on a 3.5 Loan do we as taxpayers have ? Why are MacKay’s Assets protected Via a cheque from the taxpayers ?
Seems to me a resume that includes Dog the Bounty Hunter at the Forum does not spell Promoter with financial backing from the Private sector unlike the situation in Moncton where Live Nation and Donald K Donald have chosen to plant their flag wisely for events like this. Donald K Donald left the Commons from the Rolling Stones realizing Halifax Choked again for selling tickets . No wonder less then 40000 compared to 85000 for the same show in Moncton.
As to figures of how many people? There were no 40000 , 50000 or 60000 people there.
A Football stadium with people packed like sardines will only hold 12000 on the playing surface. You had many people bringing lawn chairs by invite of the promoter in the last weeks of sales as I recall. Perhaps an admission that he was going to have a Half Empty Field ? Probably
Until the Province or the Promoter provides the Gate Receipts, HST remittances for Tickets and the Amusement Tax reports then there is little creditability to what the parties hiding these figures are saying with Numbers draw out of thin air. I would tend to believe a 26000 figure for Paul McCartney simple because of the Physical dimensions of the site and the fact that lawn chairs added to the mix would reduce capacity by HALF for the Lawn
if Capacity as stated by the Promoter is 40000 then you are not getting 50000 out of the that field and grandstands.
Seems to me that Paul McCarthney and the rest of the entertainment business have no problem with the publishing of Concert gross ticket sales for each and every show they do that is reported routinely in Pollstar Magazine . This is how they reinforce their guarantee performance fees to the vast majority of concert promoters who are privately funded and also pay for the use of venues.
Why is it a problem when it comes to Nova Scotia taxpayers Dollars being handled by the Bounty Hunters Promoter in the HRM that this man feels he is entitled to hide those figures and the provincial government works in those efforts ?
“…a $3.5 million cheque to cover McCartney’s artist fee…”: Is this saying that Paul McCartney charges $3.5 million **per performance**? Or I guess more than that. I hope he didn’t play All You Need is Love!
no that is indeed his guarantee as widely reported. Many times Artists and Managers take 90 to 95 percent of gate if the Guarantee is exceeded.The deck is stacked in Favor of the artist and the management who could walk away with millions even if they drew only one person. A promoter of course takes out insurance but was that done here with the Taxpayer being the possible Claimant one might ask ?
This is the risk that this put the taxpayer in
A one stop small region promoter without resources to underwrite an entire tour gets no break and has not leverage what so ever.
Basically that is the case in Halifax for the commons else wise the promoter would not have to have a 3.5 million dollar cheque covering the entire guarantee thanks to the taxpayer. The situation with Live Nation and Donald K Donald is they have the financial resources ,leverage and experience to get lower guarantees and high take higher promoters fees.
The taxpayers involvement is the fall guy who gets paid last IE the 300,000 dollar loan that has not been paid back. If it is our 3.5 million then what do we indeed need with a Promoter in this situation?
Call the Newspapers and Tv stations for run Ads ? Anyone can do that without having financial control of the concert that they have little risk in. 300,000 dollars this promoter had to get from the province for that !!! more like a glorified secretary with an huge expense account and absolutely very little visible risk. It must be nice to play with taxpayers money equaling 5 times as much as the entire MLAs expense claim scandal. People put a stink about MLAs what about senior bureaucrats who authorize this type of leaning ?
Ya know what’s weird about all of this…….during the concert…..Paul’s billion bucks in the bank probably made more money for him than he cleared from the concert!……….It’s chump change to him.
He certainly doesn’t do it for the money……..The ticket price just keeps the crowds down to a manageable group.
Paul McCartney has an estimated value which is different then liquid assets in the bank.
This is how urban myths are born when people don’t read the statement and stretch them into Paul McCartney or anyone has 1 billion in a bank.
An estimate value is usually based on if someone indeed converted everything to cash
which may not result in having the estimate met depending on when he sold.
The Mills divorce settlement was 33 million plus 15 million of heather mills assets held in the short marriage . The 70,000 dollars a year for the child support is small compared with some divorces of real rich people. Mills went for 250 million dollars in the divorce settlement and only got 20 percent of that ? 25 percent to a spouse of a wealth persons is the Highest awarded before McCartney VS Mills in a UK Court for a marriage of that length. Do the Math 4 times 33 million is ? Apparently Mills and her lawyers bought into the Urban myth as well going for 250 million or 25 percent of a billion .
If the man in 1985 could not even pay 47.5 million US for the his own band’s Beatles Catalog being out bid by Michael Jackson when it was estimated McCarthneys worth was 400 million dollars US then he probably does not have a billion in the bank cash today . He has a huge publishing company MPL Communications since 1971 that owns many artists songs so in 1985 he should have had the means to buy one of the most prized properties in Music Publishing. Over 3000 songs including broadway musicals Sir Paul owns. He has a the huge inheritance since 1998 from Linda Eastman McCartneys Lindner Department Store fortune which she inherited from her mother who inherited it from her parents.
With all this mere a 33 million US dollars was what Heather Mills Got inn 2006 ? his estimated worth could be 5 billion if you asked the right person on drugs but 33 million for a divorce settlement says he probably has less then 200 million tops in Cash if that .
Think of it if you had a billion dollars in the bank would you bother playing a fishing village in Atlantic Canada with angry sealers in the Region ? Sealers who use guns and John Lennon of course in your mind .
We need to get the attendance numbers released, there is a zero percent chance there was only 26k people on the grounds so unless half got in for free there is something fishy going on. I’ve been to many small, medium and large indoor and outdoor concerts across Canada and there had to be more than 50k people there.
To a previous poster: there was a huge pile of lawn chairs discarded just inside the fence, but they were not allowed on to the field. It was sardine city on the field.
I got an even better feeling for the crowed the following week at KISS where I walked back and forth to the beer stands a few times and there had to be more than 40k for them but it was less than for McCartney
Paul doesnt do concerts for money. He does it for fun. in an article about his show at Liverpool the article listed costs and said Paul did NOT recieve a performer’s fee, he requested the money go to Liverpool Performing Arts School and a music therapy charity. the tickets are just for the city/company to break even as hosting a concert is expensive for the venue and the city (police costs, generators, venue, promotion,etc.) None of the former Beatles was in it for money after the Beatles split, almost every live show proceeds went to charities after The Beatles.