Bloomberg: The Metropolitan Opera faces growing operating losses as it prepares to sell bonds for the first time since its founding in 1883.
Losses from operations swelled 7 percent last season to $135 million, according to bond documents. It was the third consecutive operating-loss increase.
2 comments:
I think this a serious issue for such a well known company. I think that the idea of a bond that is not tax exempt is going to not a appeal to the large majority of the people donating. I think the people they are targeting are just trying to unload money in most cases. I think also how the Met also cites a major decrease in revenue is a cop out of the real issue. Yes a "mega-patron" certainly would help it doesn't look at the financial status of the company overall. The drop in revenue can be attributed to the Japan tour as well as current financial times.
I think that the explanations given for the loss in funding are reasonable and important, and I'm glad that the Met has continued operations in the right way (continuing to offer Rush seats, etc) regardless of financial straights. Yet it is very concerning that they are having to resort to selling Bonds- what does that say about the community that will donate to opera? The fact that they can't find people to replace the donations of one mega-donor says that there may be bigger problems brewing for the met and other arts organizations in the near future. And that's just for the Met- as the article says, one of the best donor funded organizations in existence. We all better be worried.....
It's also curious that their pension funding increased so dramatically this year. I'd be curious to hear in more detail the reasons why.
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