Plummeting dollar hurts big-name concerts in Winnipeg

The fallingloonie could have an impact on big concert tours making their way to Winnipeg.

Kevin Donnelly, senior vice-president venues and entertainment for True North Sports and Entertainment, said the dollar is having a huge impact on shows because the artists are paid in U.S. funds.

"The shows that are coming through now are of course more expensive than they were forecast to be, and the shows in the future will become harder for any postal code in Canada to try and get that act to come to that area," Donnelly said.

For example, a $100,000 US fixed cost that was guaranteed to an artist used to cost $110,000 Canadian; nowit is closer to $145,000 to $150,000.

If the artist's price is fixed, the only way to make sure a show breaks even is to either charge more to make up the difference in the dollaror ask an artist if they'll take less money to come here, Donnelly said.

"You say, 'Well, I can't afford $100,000, will you come for $75,000 instead?' And they say, 'No,'" hesaid."They go, 'We'll just go to Wichita.'"

Big acts are on the books for this year, such as Justin Bieber onJune 11or Rihanna on April 18.But Donnelly said they were booked before the dollar fell as low as it is now, hovering around the 70 cent mark.

"All these were purchased and secured before the current state of the dollar, so those shows, there will just be less money on the table in terms of promoter profit and again [there]may be less incentiveto come back again if they know they're going to make less money," Donnelly said.

"You've either got to say, I'll assume more people will come, or I need to get more revenue from the same number of people" which means increasing ticket prices to break even.

Donnelly said True North is still working hard to find ways to bring major touring acts to the city despite the dollar.