Just saw that cool summer pic of THF in another post...and just wondering since it was built is anyone using it for anything? Is it making any money? Does it sit empty all the time?
You know the team has all their football operations in the stadium offices right? That’s a 24/7 thing.
but that's not putting any bums in the seats.
It has also hosted a couple concerts, along with a couple women's world cup games.
The Ticats are the only tenant, and the new stadium just generally seems a lot less used than IWS was. IWS was used for a lot of local youth and adult football and soccer.
But what else can they use it for that would put bums in seats?
The days of the big 25k plus outdoor rock concerts are over, maybe U2 or the Stones once every couple of years?
Most big concerts are in the 15k to 18k range and can be held much easier in an arena.
Outdoor stadiums can only be used a max of 6 months a year. I think they are planning on putting up a dome so it can be used for indoor soccer etc for the winter. They started putting a dome over the field in Ottawa years ago and it was pretty successful.
Don't know what the market is like in Hamilton for something like an NASL soccer team, other cities with NASL teams are drawing 5k to 8k which is pretty good use for the stadium.
It is being used my local minor and youth sports. Many times I have been by the stadium and see kids practicing and playing.
I live 2 blocks over and there's something (youth football, soccer etc) happening probably 3-4 days a week there.
Also they have family movie nights there. Not sure when the next one is but the last one showed E.T. and I believe the next one is Toy Story.
So to answer the question....NO.
Pretty sure the answer is yes. Ticats use the facilities every day, city uses it for minor sports, there have been some concerts, and community nights as well.
Community events? Free movie nights put on by the local counsellors? Sorry.
Concerts? Keith Urban. And???
I am glad it is being used by local football and soccer organizations. I am glad it is being used by High Schools for football etc.
I was expecting more concerts and “events” that would bring fannies into the seats…you know, like a professional soccer team? What happened to that?
THF is NOT being used to it’s full capabilities.
The answer is still no.
the venue is COMPLETELY missing the boat when it comes to concerts.
SO many viable concerts have been in Southern Ontario since the opening which would have put folks in the seats.
The casinos destroyed the concert-market for municipally owned stadiums and smaller arenas.
The casinos will put on concerts at a loss to get people into the casinos. Acts earn guaranteed sums from the casinos. The effect of this is concerts at THF or any OHL sized arena are not economically viable.
We've experienced this first-hand in Guelph where our OHL arena sits empty most of the year except for community events.
Don’t really understand your comment. Are you talking about the Mohawk slots??
There is no Casino next to THF, even if there was a casino they tend to attract crowds of 3k to 5k at concerts.
Off topic a little, I went to see the Ringo Starr All Star band at the Alleghany Casino on the US side, around 5k. The Tragically Hip also on the US side in front of around 5k mainly Canadians, one year later when they announce Gord Downy has brain cancer they are selling out 18k arenas.
Very few outdoor stadiums attract big concerts, big acts these days fill 15k to 18k at arenas. The last couple of “big acts” at the arena attracted 30k but they do that by putting on two shows.
You don't need to have a casino next door to lose potential business. This started back in 2001 with the most dramatic example being Casino Rama paying Faith Hill $1M to perform. Below is an old article that explains the problem. I've bolded what I think is relevant to the situation at THF.
Casino's shows are dimming the lights for city venues
LEAP OF FAITH: Singer Faith Hill's Casino Rama payday has Toronto promoters worried.
Casino Rama's high-stakes offers to top singers may leave Toronto concert-goers with fewer shows to enjoy and higher ticket prices.
Example: Faith Hill's show on Wednesday.
Rumours put her payday at $1 million (U.S.), though the casino won't confirm or deny that.
Casino Rama is paying two to three times the price for mainstream acts that used to traditionally underwrite concerts by more adventurous artists, says Elizabeth Bradley, general manager of the 4,500-seat Hummingbird Centre. The venue recently scored a hit with the Don Rickles/Joan Rivers double-header - a casino act if ever there was one.
Bradley is concerned ``that popular middle-of-the-road, indoor, soft-seater shows that are guaranteed sellouts and help finance more adventurous programming in the Toronto concert market are now being lured away by Casino Rama.''
``The casino people are not making sense of the economic realities of the promotions business. They're running loss leaders to finance their gambling, food and beverage operations, and they don't have to pay attention to the bottom line of their promotions business.
``It seems to me that the playing field is no longer level, and that's a real concern.''
The casino is owned by the Ontario government and 134 Ontario First Nation bands, and operated by the giant American gaming firm, Penn National. Casino Rama's new 5,000-seat entertainment centre, a convertible, multi-use concert hall/arena that can be reconfigured for audiences as small as 1,500, opens Wednesday night with a gala show featuring the multi-award-winning Hill.
Hill kicks off a season of high-end acts in the adult rock, pop, country and cabaret categories, including Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band, The Fifth Dimension, Chicago, Kansas, The Doobie Brothers, Trisha Yearwood and Dwight Yoakam.
Tickets range from $14 to $75 - about half the price other promoters, operating on as little as 10 per cent profit margins, would have to charge for the same acts in this market.
Hill's rumoured $1 million (U.S.) fee - if true, more than triple the amount other promoters in Ontario say they can afford - was not confirmed or denied by Larry Gregson, vice-president of marketing for Casino Rama and the executive in charge of booking entertainment for the new venue through American talent agencies.
``It's not our intention to pay more for artists than the industry standard, but if an act is not already on tour, and you want it for a specific date, you have to expect to pay more for a one-off.
``And this is Faith Hill's only concert appearance in 2001.
However, concert promoters in southern Ontario fear the casino is pricing them out of business and threatening the livelihood of government-supported performance venues such as Roy Thomson and Massey halls, the Hummingbird Centre, Hamilton Place and Kitchener's Centre In The Square.
Neither government-owned Windsor Casino nor Niagara Casino now feature concert acts but speculation is that following Casino Rama's lead they will be soon be booking mainstream acts at similarly high prices.
``Casino Rama is driving up the cost of business by paying much more than the going rate for marquee acts at its new entertainment centre,'' says Charles Cutts, general manager of Roy Thomson and Massey Halls.
``They're using big-name entertainment as a site finder, a loss leader to attract gamblers to the casino, and exclusivity provisions that make it difficult for other promoters in southern Ontario to compete.
``They're buying product at exceptionally high prices, artists that might otherwise perform in one of our halls.''
House Of Blues promoter Rob Bennett agrees.
``There's no link between what Casino Rama is paying and box-office reality,'' he says.
``They're offering two to three times more than we could pay, and demanding that the performers they book stay out of the market - within 250 miles of the casino - for as long as three months before and after the performance.
``Talent agents and artists have lost their grip. They think southern Ontario can support these fees. A lot of acts will not consider coming to Toronto now for less.
``Casino Rama's policy will certainly drive ticket prices elsewhere in the area higher, and they're already astronomical. It may even cut large halls like Roy Thomson, Massey, Hummingbird, Centre In The Square, and Hamilton Place out of that section of the concert market, the lucrative middle-age nostalgia rock and country demographic.''
I know the Cats have been disrupted in staying at THF due to construction and PanAm...but you can't turn your back on HUGE concerts that could fill the stadium.
Word on the street is promoters for AC DC wanted THF last year and were turned down (by Mitchell), as the team didn't want to vacate the stadium for practices.
Same went this year for McCartney.
So unless we are hosting December-May concerts at THF, it looks like this venue is off-limits.
[url=https://www.hamilton.ca/attractions/tim-hortons-field/tim-hortons-field-events]https://www.hamilton.ca/attractions/tim ... eld-events[/url]
Yuck. That’s one empty looking calendar. The lack of concerts has been a HUGE disappointment for me.
The city is not going to turn down an AC/DC, Stones, U2 concert because the Ticats need it to practice, the revenue from a huge outdoor concert would be huge. Mitchell and the Ticats are tennants they don’t own or run the stadium.
The problem is that there are just not enough big acts around these days to fill outdoor stadiums and the acts that do fill stadiums may not be on tour from May to Oct. When there is a demand for 30k plus tickets, they put on two concerts at an arena, I think they did that with Garth Brooks last year.
At Ralph Wilson in Buffalo, they had one big Stones concert last year with 70k, that was it, there are no other acts that can fill a football stadium.
The “big” acts that tour these days will play in front of 20k at an arena and smaller acts at concert halls like Hamilton Place.
Look at the acts at the first Ontario-centre, Carrie Underwood, Chicago, Tragically Hip, they are all concerts that are inside and can fill a 15k to 20k venue
The stadium was built for football and soccer, maybe in the future they will get an NASL team and have another 18 games or so but forget trying to fill it for concerts when there are so many other venues around.
THF only had ~24 k seats for the Keith Urban concert. The comparisons to the Ralph aren’t needed. We don’t have a big football stadium. We’ve got an outdoor venue that’s slightly bigger than an arena.
From a CBC News article by Adam Carter and Samantha Craggs posted February 27, 2014 concerning the lease agreement between the City and the Tiger-Cats:
“Fundamentally, it was not a good deal for taxpayers,” he (Coun. Brad Clark) said. And with more staff being added to the stadium — as per the new agreement — Clark doubts the city will end up breaking even.
Clark also had an issue with the section that gives the Ticats the ability to veto any events that conflict with team practices. With that, “we may never be able to bring in a concert,” he said.
Coun. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster had the same sticking point. The city pushed for a clause that would see the Ticats practising somewhere else if the city needs the stadium, with the city providing transportation and the field, Ferguson said.
“Taxpayers put $50 million into the facility. It should be the taxpayers who decide the scheduling, not the tenants,” he said.
The city will live with the agreement. “We have to now,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of bitterness.”