Skating and pliéing

Enlarge Image

RWB principal dancer Vanessa Lawson, Jets forward Jim Slater are propped up by more than pointe shoes and hockey sticks.

At the height of the fall arts season, Winnipeggers are enthralled with a performing troupe that enjoys more millions of dollars worth of taxpayer subsidies every year.

The group is called the Winnipeg Jets.

Unlike the non-profit Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, the city's beloved NHL team is a privately owned entity.

But that doesn't stop it from being one of the most highly subsidized business ventures in Manitoba, both in terms of provincial and municipal support.

Last week, the heads of Winnipeg's "big five" cultural institutions -- the WSO, MTC, the ballet, Manitoba Opera and the Winnipeg Art Gallery -- revealed they were all suffering at the gate this fall, when the city is justifiably obsessed with the return of the NHL.

Nobody's suggesting an entirely causal relationship between the return of the Jets and poor arts attendance, as the arts are in trouble across Canada this fall and season-opening shows in Winnipeg such as MTC's Grumpy Old Men received lousy reviews.

But there is a real connection between the return of the NHL and a decline in the arts gate, as some sponsorship money has flown from the Centennial Concert Hall to the MTS Centre and the directors of Winnipeg's big five can't recall another fall when they've all taken a hit at the box office.

The folks at True North Sports & Entertainment acknowledge the effect they're having on the market, noting Winnipeggers have a limited amount of leisure time, if not so much of a limited entertainment dollar.

Neither True North nor the arts groups are interested in any narrative that pits the NHL against The Ahts. But the phenomenon touches off a classic cultural debate, with fans and foes of the performing arts weighing in to take their predictable shots.

At the risk of summarizing the contents of the Free Press online comments section, some arts supporters and detractors refuse to believe the same consumer patronizes both hockey and, say, theatre or opera.

This is bloody nonsense, as a Winnipegger who can afford an $80 opera ticket is the same relatively rare person who can afford an $80 Jets ticket. Most people who can't afford either are watching entertainment at home, whether it's Hockey Night In Canada or The Walking Dead, both of which feature Don Cherry. But I digress.

Yes, Winnipeggers are not one-dimensional. It's possible to enjoy watching both the ballet and Alex Burmistrov, though it would be nice if the latter would do a little less of the former on the ice.

I'm not naive enough to believe every NHL fan also loves Winnipeg's contemporary dancers. But the fact is, the performing arts rely on much smaller crowds, on much fewer occasions, to stay afloat. So if their fans are also hockey fans -- and let's face it, a majority of Winnipeggers are hockey fans -- it stands to reason there's a significant degree of crossover between the supposedly discrete subsets.

Nevertheless, Winnipeggers who aren't big arts fans may be tempted to question all the government support that helps sustain the arts, from the Canada Council for the Arts through the Manitoba Arts Council down to the Winnipeg Arts Council and a variety of small programs.

The reality is, government funding is a distant third source of revenue for most arts groups, after ticket revenue and corporate sponsorship. Although the scale is different, non-profit arts groups really are no different than True North Sports & Entertainment.

But it would be a mistake to suggest True North is not the beneficiary of government support. All professional sports entities in this province -- the Jets, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Winnipeg Goldeyes -- enjoy subsidies in the form of tax refunds.

True North Sports & Entertainment, however, is in a league of its own when it comes to government support. This comes in the form of municipal business and entertainment tax refunds and provincial subsidies in the form of gaming revenue.

In 2010, when True North operated the Manitoba Moose, it received $2.15 million in municipal tax support. That broke down to a $250,000 business-tax refund and $1.9 million worth of proceeds from an entertainment tax it collects on all tickets sold to events at the MTS Centre.

Both the business tax refund and the entertainment tax refund are expected to rise in 2011 and again in 2012, given the increased value of an NHL club-owning business vs. an AHL owner, as well as the jump in the MTS Centre gate resulting from the league upgrade.

On top of this revenue, there's the rather consequential matter of up to $4 million a year in gaming revenue that will flow from 90 VLTs on their way to the Tavern United lounge and possibly other lounges in the vicinity of the MTS Centre. Revenues from these machines will support True North for the next 20 years.

According to Manitoba Lotteries, the VLTs in question were underperforming in their former locations. Over time, True North can expect to pocket up to $80 million, which goes a long way in subsidizing the purchase of an NHL team.

I would wager most Winnipeggers are OK with that, given the passion for hockey in this town. Full disclosure: I share NHL season tickets myself.

But the next time someone complains about public funding for the arts -- never mind the CBC, Air Canada or the Quebecor media empire -- it's worth remembering the Jets have their hands in the public purse as well.

And why not? Somebody has to help out that David Thomson guy, who otherwise might not make it.

The plight of the world's 16th-richest man is always on my mind when I hear the MTS Centre crowd accentuate "True North" when the national anthem is sung before Jets games.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 4, 2011 A1