Arena’s luxury-suite surcharge blasted

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This article was published 04/11/2011 (5085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A server at the MTS Centre luxury-suite boxes is crying offside over a 17 per cent charge on restaurant and liquor orders.

The server, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, said luxury-box customers think the 17 per cent “service charge” is a tip to the staff, but it’s not.

“We don’t get the same tips you’d get elsewhere,” the server said. “Guests think the service charge is the tip, but it’s just a charge tacked on to the bill and we’re not allowed to explain that or we’ll get reamed out,” the server said.

The food operator at the MTS Centre is Centerplate, an American-based catering company that controls concessions at 250 sporting, entertainment and convention facilities across the United States and Canada. Centerplate has been at the MTS Centre for seven years and it also has the food-catering concession at Canad Inns Stadium.

The server said the 17 per cent charge was increased from 15 per cent after the MTS Centre’s owners, True North Sports & Entertainment, secured an NHL franchise. It had been 15 per cent for several years.

The server said Centerplate management decided to give them two percentage points after some of them complained when the service charge was increased to 17 per cent.

“But of course, the two per cent is pooled among all the servers and paid out monthly,” the server said.

Each server is responsible for two suites. The server said the food and drink tabs average from $1,500 to $2,000 per event.

Kevin Donnelly, a senior vice-president at True North Sports & Entertrainment and general manager of the MTS Centre, said there had been a 15 per cent service charge for luxury-suite orders for seven years, adding it was imposed in part because of the higher level of service provided to suite holders and higher pay paid to suite servers.

Donnelly said servers at the suites have been paid $12.50 an hour for several years, adding a portion of the service charge will be shared with them to recognize they haven’t had a raise in several years while the minimum wage — paid to other concession staff — has crept closer to their wage level.

Donnelly said a service charge is standard in the industry, adding it was increased to 17 per cent because the clientele will change with the NHL games and they’ll expect a better quality of service.

“Most of our clients used to be children and now they’re CEOs. They expect a different level of service. We’re in a new business,” Donnelly said.

Servers in New York City launched a lawsuit in May against the concession company at Yankee Stadium, which levies a 20 per cent surcharge on all food and drink orders in the lower-level seats and keeps the bulk of the funds. The servers at Yankee Stadium said sport fans pay the 20 per cent believing it’s going to the servers. It’s illegal in the state of New York for an employer to keep a server’s tips.

But the servers at the MTS Centre have no such protection in Manitoba, where tips are unregulated.

Donnelly said True North is involved in all decisions made by Centerplate, including those of menu prices and wages paid to servers.

Donnelly said True North and Centerplate should have done a better job explaining to suite holders why the service charge was imposed, adding he expects menus and bills in the future will contain clarifying information about the service charge.

Donnelly said suite servers will also share five percentage points of the 17 per cent service charge, but they haven’t received any of it yet.

However a memo sent to all suite servers states, twice, that servers will receive two percentage points from the higher service charge, which will give them a bump in hourly wage.

The same memo, sent by Centerplate’s MTS Centre general manager Craig Vidal, states Centerplate only agreed to give the suite servers a share of the service charge after some of the servers complained how that would impact on the little tips they already receive.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca