“It’s a slippery slope to start down,” said Michael Langer, president of the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, which operates Greensburg’s Palace Theatre. “The live theater industry is both very competitive and very price sensitive.”
Monday, September 24, 2018
Theaters not amused by idea of amusement taxes, like the one being considered in Irwin
“It’s a slippery slope to start down,” said Michael Langer, president of the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, which operates Greensburg’s Palace Theatre. “The live theater industry is both very competitive and very price sensitive.”
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I'm going to be totally honest: I can't think of a show I paid to see within the past four or five years. Ticket fees is definitely a part of it—it's demoralizing to shell out as much as 50% of the ticket's nominal price in additional fees. The other part, of course, is that I'm an industry professional, and the odds are such that if I have time to see a show, I probably worked on it and have comps. But for people of my generation, it's hard to go to buy a $35 ticket that is suddenly $40 or $45 because of taxes and fees. More expensive tickets implicitly set a minimum for who can afford to see a show. Adding taxes to ticket sales impedes the access of low-income people who arguably benefit the most from access to the arts.
I went online the other day and looked up ticket prices for the Pittsburgh Opera. 165$ to go see Madame Butterfly. I was a bit taken back by the high cost. As much as a ticket to the Benedum for a Broadway tour. For small theatres, like the one in Irwin, this could really hurt the bottom line. I feel that the council person who is pushing this understands that there are fees associated with the box office. For a company who uses Vendini, there are per ticket charges that the ticket company assesses that the venue has to pay. They are right, this will get passed onto the customer who will eventually stop coming because once you start collecting taxes on something, they will only go up. One your customer get’s used to the 1.00 they want to charge, an increase will come down the line. Also, I don’t think it is fair that a theatre has to pay separate for things like police, fire and ems protection. This feels like the council is looking for an excuse to increase taxes and do so in a shady way to mask their true intentions.
Well this is a bummer. I think perhaps the name amusement tax is what is throwing me off, but I feel like patrons of the arts already pay enough. If you buy a ticket online from the venue itself, you pay for their price, tax, and usually a processing fee, which translates to "you did not buy your ticket in person so we are punishing you". If you go through a different means of buying tickets not from the venue, then you are hit with the upcharge already placed on the tickets by the third party seller, their processing fee, their account fee, etc. The list goes on. I know that for higher class shows, like touring Broadway performances and opera shows the wealthy are usually the ones who purchase tickets, but can't we agree that art by its definition something that should be accessible by a broader range of the population?
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