Wesbild Ctr remains fiscally responsible

by Grant Scott - Castanet  May 21, 2012 / 5:00 am

 The City of Vernon is taking exception to allegations that they are not doing as good a job managing the Wesbild Centre as previous operators have. However, Doug Ross, Vernon's Recreation Service Manager, says he does not want to comment directly on how other operators handled the facility. "We would prefer to comment on how we're doing. We have no issues with Recreation Excellence (the previous operator) and I don't want to get in to what might be perceived as throwing stones," says Ross. Vernon's Wesbild Centre was operated first by Recreation Excellence and then the North Okanagan Regional District, before the city took over in 2009. Since the city's takeover, complaints have arisen that the facility is being under utilized. "To speak to the numbers that we're showing here for the last three years that we've been operating the facility, when you look at the other arenas, we had in 2009, the first year that we were involved, a $52,000 surplus, in 2010 there was a $75,000 surplus, then last year there was a $22,000 surplus on those facilities.  Those numbers speak for themselves as far as running the facilities efficiently. We're not going over budget." Ross added that when you look at the Wesbild numbers alone, they were $182,000 under budget in 2009, $68,000 over budget in 2010 and then in 2011, they showed a $90,000 surplus. "When you look at it on the whole we've run it at about a $200,000 surplus over the last three years. I think that speaks for itself that we're running the facility in a fiscally responsible way." As for not running as many events in the facility as previous operators have, Ross says that's not always a possibility. "We have a balancing act that we have to play in that we want to bring in events into the Wesbild Centre and the community, but at the same time we have to be fiscally responsible." Ross says some acts pose a huge financial risk. "When you get an act that comes across your desk and they want a $100,000 guarantee to appear, you really have to think twice about that. Will the community, with the economy the way it is, support an act of that size with the ticket prices that we would have to have in order to meet our bottom line?" Ross also pointed out that Vernon has to compete with larger facilities in the region, like Prospera Place in Kelowna, which tend to have an upper hand in attracting events. As well, he noted the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton also faces challenges in drawing enough events, but with its larger capacity, has an upper hand on Vernon. "We have to work with what we have and balance all those factors out and try and bring in some acts," says Ross. "We're always looking at to see what we can attract." Overall, Ross says, he feels the number of events has stayed pretty consistent over the years, but also admits things were different when the Centre first opened. "The first year the building opened, they really went big because they wanted to make a big splash and they had the Tragically Hip and Tom Cochran there the first year. But those kinds of acts now are asking for such large guarantees that it's pretty tough for us to bring them in here."