City Commissioners held a public hearing during their Jan. 2 meeting to update the fee structure for the Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts.

There was no public comment on the resolution, which keeps the same fees for room rental fees and services that commissioners approved in August 2021, but reflects the new business model city events staff have been developing.

The Civic Center Events office operates the Mansfield and is responsible for promoting, coordinating and providing affordable event space and box office services.

City approves theater fee change to retain symphony

The 52,000-square-feet of meeting space includes the Mansfield Theater, Mansfield Convention Center, Missouri Room, Gibson Room, Commission Chambers and several other meeting rooms in the Civic Center.

“The landscape of the event space industry has changed, with more competing venues opening and providing services within our community. To compete with, and to keep partnerships intact the MCPA recently embarked on developing a new business model that allows for variations in how business had been previously conducted,” according to city staff.

During the meeting, Commissioner Rick Tryon asked if they were trying to compete with local venues.

Chunk Anderson, deputy city manager, said that it’s not direct competition since the city’s facility isn’t replicated elsewhere in the community but there are some aspects of the city’s spaces and services that are available elsewhere.

He said city staff is looking to have more flexibility since they have a large facility, it would be helpful to be able to negotiate the fees and hopefully get multiyear commitments.

City Manager Greg Doyon said that the Mansfield is in the same complex as the Civic Center and even if those rooms are not being rented for events, the city has to maintain those spaces.

He said the less the space is rented by outside entities, the higher the cost to the taxpayer.

Doyon said the city has struggled with the events fund for years and that the city has less capacity to promote their events and facilities than other venues.

In this year’s budget, the city cut general fund support to the events fund, leaving it to rely on fees for services to cover expenses.

Last year, the general fund, which is tax revenue, subsidized the events fund with $265,913. The previous year, the general fund subsidized events with $786,019 from the general fund, which included some COVID relief funds to replenish the lost revenue from canceled events during the pandemic.

City finance staff told The Electric that they’re anticipating the fund can operate this year without the subsidy.

The events division also reduced a full-time laborer to part-time in this year’s budget.

Commissioner Susan Wolff said that she’d like to see the citizen-owned building used more and is looking forward to seeing more ideas from staff on increasing usage and revenues to make needed repairs and improvements to the facility.

Over the summer, the city was awarded a $250,000 historic preservation grant from the Montana Department of Commerce for repairs and improvements to the theater that city staff have been discussing for years.

Commissioner Joe McKenney said that the private sector seems to be growing and he doesn’t want the Civic Center to compete with local venues.

In October, the city and Great Falls Symphony agreed to a one-year test of continuing to use the Mansfield Theater for performances and events without the requirement of using the Mansfield box office.

Owen Grubenhoff, Mansfield events manager, told commissioners in October that retaining the symphony is essential as they’re the theater’s largest customer with 12 shows annually.

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Under the previous agreement, the Mansfield was taking 8 percent of gross ticket sales and $2 per ticket, as well as $4 per ticket sold online or by phone for each show.

On Oct. 3, commissioners approved a new agreement with a flat fee of $5,000 per symphony performance and $2,000 per youth orchestra concert.

Grubenhoff said they were averaging $5,216 per symphony concert from 2017 to 2020.

Fee structure change proposed to help keep Broadway series in Great Falls [2021]

He said they’re planning to pilot the new model for a year and track the impact to the city’s ticketing website and box office.

“This had not been done before, but in order to keep the symphony as an active partner and facility patron, both parties agreed to test this business model component for a year,” according to the staff report for the Jan. 2 meeting.

During the October meeting, commissioners thanked staff and the symphony for their collaborative approach.

City staff wrote in this year’s budget documents that they reached out to the Newberry several times to discuss potential collaboration ideas, but “this effort has not been successful yet but attempts for a future partnership will continue.”

Staff is also monitoring and analyzing Broadway ticket sales this season to determine if a co-promotion partnership for that series would be financially beneficial, according to the budget book.

Staff released a request for proposals for Mansfield Theater concessions in the fall and received no responses, according to staff.

Staff has been trying for years to get a new concessions vendor for the theater.

The resolution commissioners approved Jan. 2 also includes language allowing the city to negotiate or adjust fees established by the resolution.

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Under the resolution, the ability to negotiate fees will be handled on a case-by-case basis with final approval authority through the city manager’s office, according to the staff report.

The Mansfield events manager will not have the ability to change fees, according to the staff report.

“This component of the new business model will enable the [Mansfield] to better compete with other community venues by being able to obtain multi-room, multi-year or multi-event commitments and expanding the adjustment criteria to include current and former employees, military and veterans and a preferred or partner user,” according to the staff report.

According to city staff, the change won’t cause a loss of revenue on any event already scheduled or booked event and the resolution language requires all costs associated with the event or service must be covered for each event.

City continuing discussion of turning Missouri Room into court space

“At this time, the impact of this new concept is not fully known, but will be reviewed on an annual basis prior to each budget,” according to the city staff report.

Staff recommended that commissioners approve the resolution due to “increasing competition from new event venues, changes in industry practices, and the impending loss of revenue from the Missouri Room being converted to court space.”

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Over the summer, commissioners opted to move forward with a plan to renovate the Missouri Room upstairs in the Civic Center into the Municipal Court, which is currently in the basement of the building.

in August, commissioners unanimously approved a $321,950 design contract to Cushing Terrell for the court remodel.

The contract will be funded by with American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to city staff.