Lady Antebellum and Motley Crue are on tour this summer, but there’s no way they’ll be stopping in Thunder Bay.
But, says Bob Halvorsen, if the city had its proposed events centre in place, both big-name acts might consider the city for a one-night musical stand.
Halvorsen, the general manager of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, on Thursday announced the facility’s board of directors are fully behind the city’s effort to build an events centre, estimated to seat between 6,000 and 6,500 spectators for hockey, more for concerts.
“We’ve been getting a number of calls from our patrons,” Halvorsen said, explaining why he decided to make the Auditorium’s stand a public one.
“People wanted to know where we stood on an events centre and whether or not it would have an effect on us.”
The short answer, he said, is no, it shouldn’t affect business at the 26-year-old Auditorium, which averages about 140 programming dates a year and costs city taxpayers about $650,000 in annual subsidies.
Halvorsen said an events centre doesn’t necessarily have to be a competitor with the Auditorium, and in fact can work synergistically with the 1,500-seat complex.
“Obviously there are a number of shows that the Auditorium just cannot do because of the physical number of seats we have. And as you know, the Auditorium does present a lot of events outside of these four walls,” he said.
“The Blues Festival is probably the one that most people are familiar with, but we also do Summer in the Parks, Canada Day and our tech crew does a lot of shows, in fact most of the shows, at Fort William Gardens.”
While the aging, 61-year-old Gardens does have an estimated two-decade lifespan left, Halvorsen said major touring acts often see it as a relic and it’s not on many agents’ touring maps.
“There are a number of acts that probably go right past Thunder Bay. I see them going past Thunder Bay. I’m very familiar with a lot of the agents that handle these people and nothing against the Gardens, however the ceiling heights and the technology that’s available in there for acoustics and such, a lot of these acts may be choosing to just pass Thunder Bay.
“Obviously a new events centre is going to have some sort of ambience that’s going to attract these people.”
Halvorsen said they’d leap at any opportunity to present shows at the new events centre, expected to cost $80 million to $100 million to build, with an annual operating deficit of about $900,000.
The city is expected to see a report indicating a location preference for the facility, which city manager Tim Commisso has repeatedly said won’t be built without support from both the federal and provincial government.
Premier Dalton McGuinty last month said he’d listen to a proposal should the city present one, while the Ottawa, who denied the city money to build during the first stage of the P3 funding process, has encouraged Thunder Bay to reapply using the convention centre portion of the project to attract federal dollars.
Commisso said he welcomes the support and potential partnership.
"Their media release today in my view makes the TBCA board's position clear to the public," Commisso said, reached via email. "The Community Auditorim is a wonderful asset for the city and if the project moves forward, I think it would be great to see the TBCA directly involved in some way with the new event centre."
