Cranbrook city council is mulling a request for a stabilized five-year funding request from the Key City Theatre Society, as staff are reviewing the budgetary impact of the proposal.
While the Key City Theatre Society already receives annual grant funding from the city, the amounts vary from year to year. By requesting a five-year agreement with stabilized and reliable annual funding at $120,00 per year, the Society hopes to leverage that into successful grant applications from other sources, such as Columbia Basin Trust and senior levels of government.
“This type of funding is really, really important and the stability is really important, and the partnership is important,” said Landon Elliot, president of the Key City Theatre Society, during a presentation to city council on Monday night.
“One thing that you’ve noticed in here, we’ve never asked for any increases over the five years. What we really want is to have a good partnership with the city to show we can move forward, we can create a stable environment and to be able to leverage that money for future years so we can keep bringing people back.”
In fact, Elliott noted that with the $120,000 already committed by the city in the current fiscal year, the Society was able multiply that sixfold — three times through successful grant applications to other public organizations, and three times through actual ticket sales.
While the COVID-19 pandemic had a brutal impact on live events over the last two years, the Key City Theatre has seen significant growth long-term over the last eight years.
Galen Olstead, Managing Director, says revenues and expenses have doubled from 2014 to 2019, going from $450,000 to just shy of $800,000.
And coming out of the worst of the pandemic, the desire for live events and performances is strong.
In typical seasons, there are, on average, four to eight true sold out shows — meaning every single available ticket has been sold.
This year, just through half a season, there have already been seven sold out shows, featuring performances such as Johnny Reid and BeeGees Gold.
“What I think it’s showing, is even in that short amount of time, we’re seeing the appetite and seeing the support to get back to live events and we keep hearing again and again from our patrons about how valuable it is to be back in experiencing live events together,” said Olstead.
In an average year, the Key City Theatre hosts 120 events covering 180 booked nights. The organization has four full-time staff, seven part-time contractors, and boasts a team of 60 volunteers.
Annual attendance is approximately 50,000, but those aren’t necessarily all for ticketed events, as that traffic may include high school graduation or other free events.
On average, 25,000 tickets are sold through the Key City Theatre box office, which brings in roughly $900,000.
On the capital project side of things, the Key City Theatre building has undergone a number of renovations over the past few years, which included roof, structural and electrical and HVAC upgrades, as well as equipment acquisition, all of which came in at just under $4 million.
“The Society’s been really successful in leveraging partnerships and accessing substantial grants to accomplish the upgrades,” said Olstead.
“Now that we’re completed in those upgrades, we’re now looking ahead at more specific projects, things like the replacement of our 30-year-old seats. We’re now just undertaking an upgrade of our kitchenette area, again targeting grants to help do those projects.”
In terms of successful grant applications, the Regional District of East Kootenay recently approved a $50,000 request from the Key City Theatre for renovations to the kitchenette and theatre staging areas.