The name has absolutely no appeal and if anything makes you beleive that this is a CN Building, however the $86000.00 per year will go a long way to offset the $300,000.00 per year this facility loses. The venues booked for 2006 should also help, however if fan attendence to the hockey games remains under 3000 per game things will still be bad.

The royalties from the Hockey Enforcers should take care of the rest of the deficit ..

Hockey enforcers 2 should put us in the black, especially since the City Fathers were smart enough to negotiate the sole rights to filming the next 5 events.

;-)

We should latch onto the rights for the women's hockey enforcers as well. Should be able to put in some sky lounges for that.

looks like all that matters is money. so what is to be sold next?

"CN Centre"? Of course it's about money. The city needs the money.

The CN needs to be more visible in the community.

zmsny organizationd will finds themselves in a situation where they can receive some long term funding committments in trade for putting your name on the facility.

When you need the money and the current users won't step up to pay, what would you expect them to do?

I don't agree or disagree, but the bottom line is money. Chester

Pardon the misplaced keys.

The CN needs to be more visible in the community only because of the bad publicity it received for the purchase of BC Rail, so this is a big P.R. Job for them, and they can well afford it.

As for the CN Centre itself that is another story. What long term finiancial planning went into this project before it was built. At present we have a facility that lost $300,000.00 last year, and the city has apparently budgeted for a loss of $380,000.00 for this year. The citys revenue from the Cougers is 12.5% of gross revenue up to 1,500,000.00 after which it rises to 15%.

In order to reach the 15% mark you would have to average 3500 fans per game, however the average seems to be about 3000 per game. One game was as low as 2500 fans. At an average of 3000 per game for 36 home games the city would gross approx $162,000.00 while the cougers would gross approx $1,134,000.00. In addition the city will now get approx $86000.00 per year for signage from the CN. Total income from cougers and CN $248,000.00 which would pay the salary and benefits for 3 employees. The balance of the revenue will have to come from other venues which would be approx 10 per year.
It does not look like this facility will make any money in the immediate future, however the big question is can the Cougers continue to stay here for $1,134,000.00 per year. If they cant and they decide to leave, then what do we do with this facility. Even if you moved the Spruce Kings into it our losses would double or triple.

A 15 year contract with the CN for signage is great, however unless the facility starts to pay its own way, the question of signage may be moot.

Did the city plan on making a profit on this facility when it was built, or did they plan on the taxpayers picking up the tab for the yearly deficit, or was their no long term planning at all. Do they have a back up plan if the Cougers leave, or did they think they would stay here forever??

The answer to those questions is simple .....

Hockey Enforcers

If this City had a success with the Cougars and with some better show events with bigger ticket names, they would not have to go with the Enforcer type of show .....

People in this community simply do not pay for such one big name star after another. There is a limit for the total expenditures in a year on entertainment in local facilities.

I wonder if anyone has done a marketing study on this sort of thing. What is the "leakage" to combine a trip to Vancouver or even Edmonton to see a show, do some shopping, a bit of eating at a few restaurants, etc.?

If there is significant leakage, what will it take to reduce it?