Canadians Figure Wallenda Profit at 25 Grand

Janice Thomson, Chair of the Niagara Parks Commissio. At least she can add and subtract.

Roger Trevino, Executive Vice President of Niagara Falls Redevelopment first thought of briinging Wallenda to Niagara Falls.

We might learn from the good folks across the river in Niagara Falls, Ont., how to add and subtract.
It might do us some good.

While on the U.S. side, Mayor Paul Dyster sent Nik Wallenda a bill for $25,000 for costs associated with his wire walk on June 15, the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) in Ontario set to work to figure out how much money Wallenda made for the park.

Ironically, they said, after expenses, it was $25,000 in profit, the same figure as in Dyster’s bill.

They were not counting the free publicity that Wallenda got for Niagara Falls on both sides around the world, or live television coverage which 10.9 million watched.

They were talking about actual profits on the ground in parking, food and beverage sales.

More than 100,000 people came to Niagara Falls, Ont., this summer to watch Wallenda walk across a tightrope from Goat Island in New York to Table Rock in Ontario.

Wallenda was encouraged to make his historic walk over Niagara Falls by NFR Executive Vice President Roger Trevino and guided through a labyrinth of legalities by State Sen. George Maziarz, two people Mayor Paul Dyster does not consider political allies.

Dyster fought the concept from the start. Critics say it was not because of the event itself but because of who sponsored it. Mayor Dyster’s main post-walk comment was to say how he had no choice to dun Wallenda for $25,000, charging him for 31 policemen (and a crime analyst to boot) at overtime pay and 25 firemen and their (two) trainers.

When Wallenda made his first appearance in Niagara Falls, N.Y. since the June 15 event he appeared with Maziarz and State Assemblyman John Ceretto, another Republican not close to Dyster.

Unlike on the U.S. side which cannot calculate revenue from taxpayer funded events and relies on anecdotal information – like in the case of the Holiday Market or Hard Rock Concerts - Ontario folks are business oriented.

What is used to justify taxpayer expenditures in Niagara Falls, N. Y. must be laughable to them:
“Hey, we brought in a lot of people at the Holiday Market for our $450,000 in taxpayer money – people that would not have come to Niagara Falls.”

Really how many?

Well, we cannot say, exactly, because we did not monitor attendance, but a lot.”

Or “the $700,000 taxpayers paid in Hard Rock concerts to bring in people who stay overnight at hotels.”
Did you compare bed tax numbers for those days from last year?
Ah well Ah gee ah um… no.

At a public meeting of the NPC last week, the commission issued a report: Comparing the net profit over what it was on the same Friday night in 2011, the Parks Commission this year on Wallenda’s night earned an additional $18,949 from food and beverage sales, parking and retail sales.

The NPC also had revenues of $70,825 ($6,311 profit) from sponsorship and VIP viewing area sales and charged Wallenda $107,105 for safety, security, and potential rescue expenses. But the cost of hosting the event and hosting the large turnout of media outlets cost money, too.

The biggest cost was a $60,758 bill from the Fasken Martineaul law firm for drawing up the event contract. Other costs included $28,147 – Enterprise Canada PR services; $4,748 – Rescue trolley and equipment; $4,913 – Risers for media use;
$3,068 – Computer cabling;  $375 – 5,000 Wallenda Walk flyers; $23 – Masking tape and markers.
The Wallenda event netted the NPC $25,260 after everything was paid for.
Keep in mind the NPC determined that, with a crowd of 100,000, they made an additional $18,949 in parking, food and beverages.
It makes you wonder: If 100,000 people saw a net gain of $18,949 in Ontario, how Dyster and company figure having Hard Rock concerts here for $20,000 to $40,000 in taxpayer costs per concert that attract perhaps 5,000 people, can earn back the money taxpayers invest?

As opposed to Dyster’s criticism of Wallenda, NPC Chairwoman Janice Thomson spoke of the indirect benefits of the Wallenda event, saying the walk was “looked at more as facilitating economic improvement for the region – that we were doing our part to lift everyone up. That's the legacy of it all. The elation everyone felt after it was over is not measurable. The positive light Niagara Falls was shown in through that event is worth it.”

 No wonder the Canadians are doing so much better than us.

 They’re just plain smarter.

 Well, at least they know how to add and subtract.