Loss of revenue to be in the millions for Evraz Place: CEO

Agribition being postponed is the latest punch in the gut for Evraz Place.

Regina Exhibition Association Limited is the not-for-profit corporation that operates Evraz Place for the City of Regina.

CEO Tim Reid said before the COVID-19 pandemic, a good year for them would be a profit of $1 million and in a bad year, they would lose a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the losses are set to be astronomical.

“Based on cancellations as well as events that have been lost already, we believe that we’ve lost about $4.5 million worth of anticipated earnings based on cancellations and we think that number by the end of this year will be somewhere between $6 (to) $7 million depending on what elements of our business we can turn on and when,” Reid said.

Along with Agribition pulling the plug on this year’s event, Canada’s Farm Progress Show and Queen City Ex are also two major events that couldn’t go ahead under the current climate.

There’s also the unknown of if a CFL season will be played at all, and how many fans could even attend the events. The WHL announced a potential Oct. 2 start date, but that could change as well.

Despite no events taking place, there are still a lot of associated costs when it comes to upkeep of the buildings and keeping the power on at the facilities.

“Our summer months are so critical to our business. It’s really where we pay for everything else,” Reid said.

“With the timing of COVID-19, it really couldn’t have hit our business at a worse time.”

Reid said almost all of their part-time staff don’t have any scheduled shifts at this time. During the year, Evraz Place usually has around 150 full-time staff on site depending on the time of the year but about 72 per cent of them have been temporarily laid off.

Reid expects the recovery process will depend on a couple factors.

“We’re in the disposable income business in many ways. Whether you’re registering your kids for hockey or soccer or you’re coming to a concert at the Brandt Centre or you’re buying tickets to an event at Mosaic Stadium … at the end of the day, that’s all based on the availability of funds to pay for it,” Reid said.

“With so many people out of work and so many challenges to our economy, we have to realize that the amount of money people will have in their blue jeans going forward is going to change.”

Reid added they expect a significant amount of people to not feel comfortable returning to mass gatherings right away.

“We’re not sure what the public appetite for mass public gathering will be in the future and how long it takes for that confidence to be restored,” he said.

According to Reid, the sports and entertainment industry has been coming together to try and find a way to get out of this pandemic with minimal damage done.

“We were competitors (with other venues for events) and I think through COVID-19 what’s happened is that there’s a reset on the horizon and there’s a transformation that’s coming that none of us are particularly clear on.”