New fee could be coming for Mosaic Stadium concert tickets, says facility operator

Concertgoers headed to Regina's Mosaic Stadium have been spared from paying a proposed $12 flat "ticket tax," but might still have to pay some sort of fee to help recover costs for the new stadium, according to the facility operator.

The group that operates and maintains the $287-million facility — the Regina Exhibition Association Limited, or REAL — and the City of Regina have reviewed the first year of operations at the stadium.

REAL CEO and president Tim Reid — who assumed the role earlier this spring — said in the past six weeks the group finalized a new operating agreement with the city that will be in place until 2021.

He said part of the discussion was around a $12 fee — which he calls a "ticket tax" — that he confirmed the city was looking at adding. 

"I brought forward to the city that I thought we should really be cautious with this.

"What I encouraged the city to consider was the building is new and we don't know how it competes on a global marketplace," Reid said.

"We do have to realize that Mosaic has to compete not only with best practices in Regina or Saskatchewan or Western Canada, but we need to steal the Taylor Swift show out of Toronto or out of Vancouver."

Loan repayment

A $12 facility fee is currently applied to every Saskatchewan Roughrider ticket as part of an agreement between the city and the football club to help repay a $100-million loan the city took from the province in order to build the stadium. 

In a November 2017 interview with CBC, City of Regina executive director of major projects Kim Onrait said that fee was not applied to non-Rider events and expanding it was up for review as a part of look back at the stadium's first year of operation. 

Those who attended last summer's Guns N' Roses concert at Mosaic or have tickets to see The Eagles next week will notice a $4 facility fee on their tickets, which REAL spokesperson Paula Kohl said goes to pay for preparing the venue for the event. 

'Facility event licence' instead of $12 fee

Reid said instead of levying a flat fee per ticket, the parties agreed to what he calls a "facility event licence" to help repay the capital costs of the stadium.

"Anytime we want to bring in an event, then the city will have the ability to ask for a licensing fee for any entertainment rather than a $12 ticket tax. We'll have the ability to negotiate with them the economic value of bringing that to the City of Regina and whether that justifies leveraging or minimizing the event licensing."

If there is a licence fee applied, it would appear on a ticket and would be negotiated based on the ticket price, according to REAL. 

Reid said applying a $12 fee to tickets at the venue would have risked making it non-competitive in both the local and national entertainment market. 

Fee could go to maintenance or loan repayment

In an email statement to CBC News on Thursday, Onrait said the city and REAL may charge a facility licensing fee "where appropriate." The fee "can be used for various Mosaic Stadium purposes such as operational and/or maintenance costs or possibly can be applied to the repayment of the loan."

"The amount of the facility licensing fee will be mutually agreed to by the City and REAL and how the funds are applied to is at the discretion of the City of Regina."

During April's council meeting, Onrait said council will be presented with an update on the financial picture of Mosaic Stadium later this month.