Accessibility — and the related costs — were under discussion among St. Albert city councillors this week.
Coun. Wes Brodhead brought up the question during a presentation on the city-owned and operated Arden Theatre at a committee meeting Dec. 10.
There are two wheelchair-accessible spaces and space for two attendants and 497 able-bodied seats in the venue.
Coun. Brodhead asked Elizabeth Wilke, the city’s director of community services, why there aren’t more (Coun. Mike Killick, who supports paving the Botanic Park’s parking lot for accessibility reasons, said he appreciated Brodhead broaching the subject).
“My point is that we’re supposed to be (accessible to all residents) and money is not always the end consideration,” he said. “Correct me if I’m wrong.”
The theatre’s ramp is non-compliant with current accessibility regulations. Wilke said if the city spent the $2 million-plus it would cost to add a lift, the theatre space would have to be brought up to code to create more and wider access paths at a likely cost of millions more.
Wilke said the theatre gets all sorts of requests but isn’t hearing that there aren’t enough wheelchair spaces.
The theatre, which opened its doors on Dec. 2, 1983, is attached to St. Albert Place.
“I suspect if you saw those two wheelchair spaces full all the time and were getting calls … that’s when you would come to council (with a funding request) but you’re not,” Mayor Cathy Heron said. “But I suspect, as you said, with an aging population, that could be coming.”
“The last interior renovation was millions of dollars also,” Wilke said. She said the Arden Theatre was included in an accessibility review of St. Albert Place as part of the creation of the city's Universal Access Plan in 2018. Recent improvements include a gender-inclusive washroom completed in 2021.
“We do not receive a lot of additional feedback for additional wheelchair spots,” she said. “There are specific presentations where both spaces are used, but not at all of our events.”
Coun. Brodhead countered that if folks know there are a limited number of spots, they won’t bother coming.
“We do get phone calls for all sorts of other things,” Wilke said.
CAO Bill Fletcher said the theatre’s accessible shortcomings are recognized but balanced against the cost and other priorities such as windows and the HVAC system.
Fletcher said if council wanted, the theatre could be overhauled, but that would put off another capital project and would close the theatre for an extended period.
Wilke also pointed out that would reduce capacity “significantly,” so the city would take longer to make the money back.
Efficiency
According to Wilke’s presentation, the Arden continues to outperform many of its regional municipally owned contemporaries in terms of cost recovery.
In 2023, the theatre operated at 60 per cent cost recovery, up significantly from the pandemic year of 2021 (23 per cent), but down from 2022 (72 per cent). The forecast for 2024 is 69 per cent.
That clip compares favourably to other similar venues in Alberta:
- Keyano College in Fort McMurray and Cargill Theatre in Camrose, both at 63 per cent cost recovery;
- Shell Theatre in Fort Saskatchewan at 52 per cent;
- Maclab Centre in Leduc at 37 per cent;
- Festival Place in Strathcona County at 28 per cent.
The theatre has found efficiencies in recent years, saving $35,000 by parting ways with Ticketmaster, paying 15 per cent of what it used to for electricity thanks to more efficient LED lighting, by reducing overtime by 85 per cent and even trimming 1.5 full-time equivalent positions.
Wilke said inflationary pressure and changes in spending habits put the pinch on the Arden in 2023, pushing the net subsidization from the city required back up to $623,000 from $424,000 in 2022.
"Despite these factors, 2023 expenses remained lower than those from 2016 to 2019, even with inflation, demonstrating ongoing work to reduce cost to the city," Wilke's report reads.
Bums in seats
Speaking of seats, Coun. Shelley Biermanski said she encountered a problem with the Arden’s new ticketing system. It may have saved the city $35,000 but blocked the politician from purchasing seats next to a pair she’d had for months for a recent show.
The system prevents orphan seats, so if there are three together, you can’t buy just two of them. Biermanski said she counted 21 seats blocked off in this manner at the show in question.
Wilke said staff could look into the algorithm, which is designed to maximize revenue from attendance.
Also on tickets, Coun. Sheena Hughes asked about discounting those orphan seats, or late rush sales to fill the venue.
Wilke said in the last 48 hours, the theatre will sometimes make offers to existing theatre supporters through the Friends of the Arden Theatre Society, or to a patron who has seen a similar show.
But general discounting is a topic at conferences across the country, where the consensus is that it’s better to reward audiences for buying early, not for waiting until the last minute. That makes it harder to decide if and when to change marketing tactics, or even to anticipate how many people will attend, Wilke said.
“We want people to know that they’re at risk of not getting to see the performance if they don’t buy their ticket as soon as they hear about the show.”
