PAC Survey Checks Your Entertainment Habits
Prince George, B.C.- 250News has obtained a copy of the questions that were posed to a random selection of residents in a telephone survey last week.
The survey focused on past present and future entertainment choices by residents. It is part of the review being undertaken by the City’s Administration on the proposal for a Performing Arts Centre.
The City contracted R.A. Malatest and Associates which conducted what the City calls “a standard market survey, fine-tuned by Malatest for this particular market and this particular issue.”
In addition to asking questions about age, education, gender and area of the City in which the person resides, questions were asked about how far the resident would travel to see a particular artist or attend a particular event.
Other questions asked what kind of performances the person had purchased tickets for in the past year, or would be willing to purchase a ticket for in the future, and how much would they be willing to pay for a ticket.
Ticket pricing, types of events people would pay to attend as well as how often they would attend special events are all issues critical to the development of a business case for a Performing Arts Centre.
The business case developed by the Performing Arts Society suggests such a centre would cost about $1million a year to operate, and would generate about $700 thousand a year. That would leave a $300 thousand dollar gap the Society hoped would be filled by the City.
The survey also asked what the preferred type of transportation would be to attend an entertainment event in the evening, “Would it be bus/public transit, taxi, personal vehicle or walking?”
There was not one specific question about whether or not the person supported or did not support a new Performing Arts Centre in Prince George.
While the phone survey is said to have cost around $20 thousand dollars, some members of Council have contacted 250News to say they were not made aware that there would be any dollars spent on outside involvement in the review, that they expected the review to be done by City staff. Those Councillors may want to revisit the City Manager’s report that was presented to Council on March 10th. In her report to Council, Manager Beth James advised she did not think there would be any impact to the budget, “as it will largely be done in house and within existing budgets”. That would suggest that not all of the work would be done “in house” and that there was enough money in the existing budget to handle those costs.
James says Malatest would have called many more residences in order to achieve the final 450 sampling “Malatest will phone enough people to obtain a statistically relevant sample size of 450. Based on best practices for survey methodologies, a survey size of between 400 and 500 for the size of the population of Prince George, when conducted as a random selection process, will yield results that are within +/- 5% with a confidence level of 95%.”
250News incorrectly reported yesterday that 450 homes would have been called, we appreciate Ms. James’ correction, and apologize for the error. We don’t have any information on just how many people were called in order to get the proper sampling number, but we trust Ms. James will be more than happy to contact our media colleagues who also made the same error.
Comments
so some council members know how to spew polital mumbo jumbo… aka lie?
a referendum would have cost little or nothing on the election ballots in November…and a result of how peopel think about a PAC at this time would not take monthsto aquire and there would be more than 450 answers.
I wonder who picked out the phone numbers to call… the city? the PAC people, or the people who did the poll…. I think one of the first two …. and it appearst eh questions were slanted to the benefit of the PAC campaign..
I think the PAC woud be wonderful….JUST NOT AT THIS TIME…and that is the part they never ask… when? just are you interested….and that data can be scued to any end the polsters want to send it.
so I guess we have to answer NO to every question or I fear this PAC will be bulldozered through..sooner than we think. (based on a few phone calls)
They called my place bcracer, and I am not one of the 650(or so) PAC Society members. But I don’t do surveys unless it involves beer.
Parse the name of the surveyor “Malatest”
Mal or mala is bad, test is test.
The survey wasn’t designed to determine if a PAC was wanted or needed at this time but rather to gauge if there is an appetite for the type of entertainment it would present and if it would be viable. My question is, do we get to see the results or are these just available to council or the PAC society to view. It would be hard for the PAC to go ahead if the survey proved that their isn’t an appetite for this type of entertainment at this time to the tune of building a multimillion dollar facility. The thing I would like to know is, if you answered that you didn’t attend that type of entertainment event, were you automatically disqualified from the survey, or would that response be a negative against the project. I can see disqualifying anyone who didn’t want to take part in the survey, but if you simply didn’t attend or plan to attend any of the PAC type events, that should go towards the final results.
“would generate about $700,00 a year”
And just how did they get to that figure ?
The building will probably sit empty 3 out of every 4 weeks. How much is the snack bar sushi going to cost ?
“It would be hard for the PAC to go ahead if the survey proved that their isn’t an appetite for this type of entertainment at this time to the tune of building a multimillion dollar facility. “
There is nothing in this survey that would indicate that. Chances are, if you indicated that you’ve been to the movies once in the past year that will be enough “proof” for the proponents that a 40 million dollar facility is warranted.
That type of conjecture is exactly why the public needs to see a detailed breakdown of the survey results, so we can see for ourselves what the real outcome was.
We don’t need a pac. We need an auto mall. Rezone the area between Westwood, Ferry, Highway 97, and Highway 16 to automall. Give Prince George Country Club their dollar back and call in the lease and sell that land and also sell the Pine Valley land to car dealerships. Use the money generated to pave and plow our roads.
CN Centre has attracted many big name bands in the last few years with more to come. My question is this. Will the PAC, if built, be the venue for these bands now? and if so, the tax payer will now be required to subsidize 2 large facilities. We do not need another facility that duplicates what is already being provided to us now.
The PAC is a great idea, but they are acknowledging that it will operate in the red for $300k. Know one would open a business knowing this in advance. Can the PAC not team up with UNBC and become an educational center much like the hospital has?
I have to wonder if the Cougars hopefully being sold isn’t a game changer on the PAC. I’ve already got 36 dates – with hopefully up to 12 more, penciled in on my calendar for the next several years, and I suspect there’s at least 2000 more like me. That’s a million entertainment dollars out off the table – assuming the sale goes through.
People incorrectly assume lack of support for low attendance. I had tickets for 10 years. First 5, pretty good, next 5, steady decline into mediocrity – and no change at management level – so I actually went out, bought a big screen TV with the money saved, and started watching NHL at home – and haven’t been to a game in 10 years.
Now, I’m back, and I don’t see many open dates for the Nutcracker Suite in my calendar, and Rita McNeil, God bless her, passed away – for her I would’ve went to the PAC and skipped a game.
I am so frustrated, why can’t they put this PAC to a referendum, and give the whole city a voice. 450 homes or select few called give me a break!! Our city infrastructure is falling apart and they want to fancy it up. someone said something the other day, Fix your leaky roof first then see what happens! “Man oh Man”
In a perfect world with very seat filled every time it may hit $700,000 a year.
Just like how much money the cougars could make if very seat was filled instead of reality.
So realistically ( even though a majority doesn’t want it because we have financial intelligence) if the PAC is built, and the novelty wears off then it will cost us millions.
It’s very bothersome that we know politicians can’t be trusted, they don’t listen to the voters and yet don’t do anything to change this situation.
Posted by: only2c on March 27 2014 9:28 AM
The PAC is a great idea, but they are acknowledging that it will operate in the red for $300k.
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A PAC is an awesome idea that I’m all for but not at 40 million dollars to construct and 1 million dollars a year to run. It needs to be scaled back to a size and cost that is more reasonable for a town the size of PG.
Use the 10 million they claim they can raise privately and run the damn thing as a non-profit.
People need to think back to just how AWFUL the roads were just recently because of the plows not running and there is the answer to a PAC. We could have a PAC and people sitting in hospital due to accidents from the terrible road condition…makes no sense!
Starbright I agree totally with you!
Very few bands would play the PAC. 800 seats vs 5000 seats in CN Centre. Local plays and shows do not sell out in the smaller venues so to fill the 800 seats in the PAC they will need to bring in large productions from Vancouver/New York/San Fran, etc. I’ve paid nearly $250 for tickets to go see Les Mis in Vancouver. Does anyone really think that people would pay that amount or more here?
If they use the figure of $500,000 operating costs per year and use the figure of $30 a ticket and 800 seats that means each sold out show brings in $24,000. They would have to have 20+ shows a year and every single seat would have to sell out every single show just to “break even”. That means in a year roughly 20% of PG residents would have to attend a show.
Then you have to have a variety of shows. People are not going to continue to go see the same shows and plays over and over.
The moose, don’t forget you have to pay the performers as well.. So double those numbers..
We know our mayor can’t do math because her version of cutting %10 just doesn’t add up. Good thing the new legislation of extending elections to every four years isn’t in yet.. Limits us to only 3 yrs of pain and suffering under greens incompetance.
There is a appetite in Prince George for entertainment…. But would you pay $60 for a play at PAC or $25 at TNW. I can sit thru a two hour play in plastic chairs. Besides the plastic chairs do give you more elbow room.
In my opinion if your paying $60 a show, at least $50-55 is spent on the production and actors, so that leaves $5-10 towards the overhead. Moose, I am thinking for it to be viable, every man, woman and child in Prince George has to go there twice. Or the 5000 socialites in town 30 times just to hit the $300,000 loss.
In my opinion I think they need 150,000 seat tickets sold every year, to just to hit the $300,000 loss.
How many times would I go see it in a year. I am on the tail end of the baby boomer, I don’t mind performing arts, Visual arts to me is too much a yawner.
So if I am one of the 5000 in town. Maybe I might take in three shows at the PAC. I can’t see myself wanting to spend a nice summer evening catching a show. From September to April, I am usually doing other activities two times a week anyway. So how many nights a week do I want to be out. If the Cougars get new owners, there goes another 36 nights thru the same period.
So what are they going to do with the Playhouse. If you keep it, there is operating costs. If you give it to a non profit organization than the city will still be hit with handouts.
So what is the city going to do, Are they going to cut off TNW, because they are not going to play ball with them????
Check the calendars for the Performing Arts Theatres in Kelowna, Nanaimo and Vernon. Doubt you will find Les Mis or anything like that on their schedules. Why would PG be any different ?
“Very few bands would play the PAC. 800 seats vs 5000 seats in CN Centre”
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This is just not true. There are loads of musicians who play smaller venues even when larger buildings are available. It may be because they can’t sell out a larger venue or because they prefer a more intimate setting. The acoustics should also be far superior in a PAC than what CN Centre could offer. Depending on the performer, that is a HUGE issue.
We don’t need Les Miserables to come here. We got a whole town full of them.
What’s wrong with Vanier Hall for those smaller musical performances? There is no need for a separate PAC for that.
Les Mis or Phantom of the Opera would be nice to get people in the seats. If you want to attract theatre goers, you want big names to pull them in.
Posted by: the moose on March 27 2014 7:36 PM
What’s wrong with Vanier Hall for those smaller musical performances? There is no need for a separate PAC for that.
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The acoustics are terrible in Vanier Hall. If you want to watch a kids show or a high school quality play it’s fine but if you want to listen to music it’s a terrible, terrible place.
Thanks axman, never seen a musical act at Vanier Hall, just dance recitals and plays. I’ll admit I am ignorant about who owns what but why cannot the city do something to upgrade Vanier Hall and the PG Playhouse?? Or even something up at UNBC that can have multiple uses vs a standalone PAC downtown with only one real use?? UBC has three smaller PACs, Fredrick Wood Theatre – 400 seats. Telus Studio Theatre at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts – 110 seats. Dorothy Sommerset Studio – 120 seats(expandable to 150).
Take Kin 1 for example. Instead of building a Kin 4, they renovated an existing property.
Just trying to come up with an idea that makes sense. I’d enjoy a PAC in PG but I am not willing to sacrifice much need infrastructure repairs to get it or have my taxes go up even more. When the time is right, PG will get one and it just so happens the time just isn’t right.
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