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Rolling Stones Coming to Halifax - Another Financial Beast of Burden |
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Written by Staff
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Saturday, 01 July 2006 |
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 Halifax Regional council is expected to announce on Tuesday July 4 the signing of a deal with aging rockers the Rolling Stones that will culminate in a major outdoor concert in Halifax this coming fall. Also slated to perform are Aerosmith and The Who.
On the heels of the report leaked today by a local news service, concerned citizens already armed with the knowledge that no city has ever shown a profit from Stones' concerts, are already raising doubts that Halifax can afford to host what is being touted as a "major concert". With preliminary projections of well over $100,000 in security and other basic but necessary services alone, the people of Halifax will soon be demanding and rightly so an indepth accounting of the full cost of such a venture including concerns that taxpayers could be facing yet another property tax hike.
Early projections by financial experts independent of the Stones Committee are warning that Halifax could be in the final analysis presented with a bill that exceeds $20 million. They point out Moncton, NB's 2005 Stones concert that drew 80,000 fans buying $100 tickets and the subsequent announcement that the city of Moncton suffered financial loses that would be passed on to the taxpayers of that city. Stones' concert opponents are cautioning that Halifax could very well be reaching for something that is way beyond their means.
Unidentified sources reveal that the province is considering the possibility of setting aside an undisclosed amount of money in an effort to assist the city with the costs but the province has yet to confirm the rumour.
Another contentious issue for many is the secrecy in which Halifax Regional council have conducted their negotiations in regards to the upcoming concert. Although rumours have been circulating for months on the possibility of the Stones playing in this city, council have remained silent and with a report of yet another "in-camera council session" slated for this coming Tuesday, doubts are bound to surface concerning council's decision to go ahead with such a costly venture without public consultations or feasibility studies.
Also of major concern will be the lack of availibility of hotel accommodations in late September. The Stones concert is scheduled to take place the same weekend as the highly anticipated NHL exhibition games between the Boston Bruins and the New York Islanders on Saturday the 23rd and the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Ottawa Senators on the 24th. With hockey fans coming into the city from far and wide hotel rooms will be at a premium. Armed with that knowledge can Halifax afford to fund a brand new hotel complex in anticipation of a sold-out concert venue?
The upcoming Stones concert is eerily similar to another controversial issue plaguing the city - Halifax's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Opponents to Halifax hosting the international event have become increasingly vocal over the last several months and leading the pack, so to speak is a vociferous local named Bruce DeVenne who in the past has called for a province-wide plebiscite in deciding whether Halifax should host the Games which according to DeVenne will be way too expensive in a province that is already billions of dollars in the red.
Opponents to the Stones concert will be approaching Halifax Regional council and Mayor Peter Kelly to demand a plebiscite on whether or not the taxpayers are ready yet again to fund and support yet another venture that in all likelihood will end up way too expensive for the simple folk of this province.
In the words of Bruce DeVenne himself, the self-proclaimed defender of quaintness and the status quo, "We are a small city, we have nothing to start with, our committee is totally inept, selling the hype with no facts, our province is in debt to the tune $12,600 for every man woman and child for a total of over $12,000,000,000. Same old story lots of hype no facts. Halifax tax payers being treated like mushrooms kept in [the] dark and fed manure."
Will the Rolling Stones concert be the next chapter in "the same old story"?
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