Thursday, November 20, 2008

"a Deer in the headlights"...

I was watching Compass tonight and seen the clip of Mike Currie asking Valarie if the concert promoter tried to cancel the concert the day before the event... she looked like "a Deer in the headlights"...trying to explain it… and I was not surprised that her Deputy knew this a week before she did as it's quite obvious who is running the show. Oh what the Hell! What's $400,000.00 of taxpayers' money anyway, just a little "chump change" compared to the "Big Break Giveaway"... but don't worry we taxpayers’ aren't on the hook.... we aren't going to have to pay.... .it doesn't matter as it coming out of the Tourism budget....!!!!
The following is part of a response that David Carver gave to the Guardian which helps explain how the concert business works, something obviously lost on PEI’s Tourism staff...

David Carver from Stratford, PE writes:
Unfortunately the media only has the space/time to deliver part of the story here. Prior to the summer of 2008, when we (myself, Tourism PEI, and every tourism operator, store, gas station, hotel, restaurant etc.) lost the Eagles to Moncton, I pitched Tourism PEI on another marquee artist, indicating that if the province were interested, I would submit an offer. Tourism PEI indicated we would have the same deal pints for this artist that we had for the Eagles. I had the artist seriously looking at the offer. It takes an artist months to say yes or no, and during the waiting period I read a story in the Guardian that said the Minister of Tourism had a binding offer with another promoter for the same act. That artist passed on my offer and on coming to PEI. Essentially the Minister took a business idea of mine and brought it to the competition. Despite this, in my opinion, questionable policy for courting entrepreneurs to the province and then taking their ideas to other entrepreneurs/competition, when that artist passed on the offer, I emailed Tourism PEI the idea of Van Halen as another option. The email I got back said the province was not interested in Van Halen as it did not fit with the provinces marketing strategies. A short while later, I read in the Guardian that the Minister of Tourism was in negotiations with Van Halen’s agent.
FOR THE RECORD
With respect to taxpayers money and sponsorship, at the end of the day the taxpayers of PEI neither have their money at risk, nor actually even have any of their money invested in my concerts. The PEI Government is not diverting funds that could go to Health Care. They are neither risking nor investing taxpayers dollars (in my shows anyway) HOW THE NUMBERS WORK. (Before you naysayers write back and say, sure Carver is spinning this, call any accountant in the province. They will verify this) A concert like Aerosmith generates over $250,000 in PST from ticket sales and day of show event sales. From an economic impact of $12 million (this is from Tourism PEI and although I believe it is closer to $15 M, I’ll work with their numbers) the province generates an additional $1.2 Million in PST. All this in one weekend. So, a marquee concert generates $1,450,000.00 directly to the province. Someone comes to you saying they will execute, in one weekend, a business idea AT NO RISK TO YOU, and when it is over you will have a $12 Million economic impact, $3 Million dollar marketing impact, and a PST influx, again in one weekend, of $1,450,000, again all at no risk to you. Any person from this planet would say, “well, what do I need to do to make this happen.” All my investors and I ask for is a sponsor fee to a) reward our taking the risk, b) to help protect our downside, which c) allows us to make offers for marquee artist in the first place. So, in the end, what would you rather have, 100% of nothing, or the higher share of $1,450,000.00. The reality is that the province only pays a share of that sponsor fee, and it is generated mostly from the PST I pay them, plus a small amount, which is generated from the $12 M economic impact and $1,450,000.00 PST. The host city (through hotel taxes etc) Confederation Bridge and other entities contribute significantly. And for those of you that think profit is a dirty word, none of my investors are from PEI, and yet through my passion and their generosity and entrepreneurial spirit, they invest in high-risk concerts. None of them, prior to my speaking passionately about what I consider my second home, had any particular knowledge or affection for PEI until, you know, they came here and now, of course want to move here. What do they do with their share of the profit? Reinvest it and even more, with me so we all can benefit from bigger concerts in PEI. I personally like the Minister and Deputy Minister of Tourism. I think they should stay on and enjoy the ride. I just want to bring concerts here, promote this wonderful province, and earn and then be treated respectfully.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Minister of Tourism without a doubt looked almost scared on the news.
She even looked like deer in the headlights.

The question I have is what qualifications does someone have to have to be made a Cabinet Minister. is there even a basic test?
Or does the Premier just pick all his friends in the party who got elected.

This Minister without a doubt has to be the weakest Minister in a very longtime.
Gawd I thought Webster,Campbell, Brown were weak and like Deer's in headlights. Docherty is what a deer looks are it gets hit by a semi truck.

Anonymous said...

Loyalty to the Premier is typically the only test that matters. Consider if you will some of the brains trust who graced the Binns Cabinet.

Anonymous said...

Yes...I know thinking back even to Binn's Cabinet I don't recall any Minister looking as weak as Docherty.
But what Ghiz and Crowd need to understand is that THEY have been in charge coming up to two years now. They can't blame other or Previous Governments anymore.
The old line of blaming the Tories is getting old and tried and is really annoying the public.
I wonder after the next election and Ghiz gets tossed out of Government will he still be blaming the Previous Government.

Anonymous said...

The minister is demonstrating either disrespect for island taxpayers or a total lack of understanding of how government works. I can not decide which I am more shocked over. Shame!