Bob Mackin
When Taylor Swift ended the Eras Tour in Vancouver last December, local tourism boosters said it would be a $157 million gold rush for the economy.
So how much did the superstar’s promoter pay to rent money-losing B.C. Place Stadium for the final three nights of her $2 billion grossing tour?
Outside B.C. Place Stadium on Dec. 7, 2024. (Mackin)
It is a state secret.
Under British Columbia’s freedom of information law, theBreaker.news obtained a copy of the license agreement between the taxpayer-owned stadium and the Ontario subsidiary of Swift’s Texas promoter, Messina Touring Group. Attendance for the three shows was a combined 178,042.
What MTG agreed to pay for the Dec. 1-5 move-in, Dec. 6-8 concerts and Dec. 8-10 move-out is censored. B.C. Place claims disclosure would harm its finances and reveal MTG’s trade secrets.
According to the key clause in the Sept. 27, 2024 contract:
Also, B.C. Place management was entitled to receive an undisclosed quantity of free tickets and suites:
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner adjudicators and B.C. Supreme Court judges have repeatedly held that the public has the right to see contracts negotiated between private companies and public bodies.
B.C. Pavilion Corp., the stadium’s parent, forecasts it will end the fiscal year on March 31 with a $2.7 million loss.
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