Saskatoon's Broadway Theatre fundraising to cover operating costs until 2022

The Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon is asking the public to help with operating costs as it faces a long road to recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Provincial government guidelines allowed the theatre to reopen in July, but under those guidelinesthe theatre is only able to operate at 21 per cent of its capacity. On top of that, there aren't very many bookings.

"No one's touring, no one's coming through," Wirchenko told CBC's Saskatoon Morning. "It's very difficult to program anything to get people out of their house."

Wirchenko said that currently, the theatre is only getting as many bookings in a month as it used to get in about four days. He said the theatre used to be one of the busiest venues in Western Canada.

He said arts industry leaders in North America aren't expecting bookings and crowds to return to pre-COVID levels until 2022.

While COVID-19 measures may be lifted sometime in 2021, the expectation is it will still take six to 12 months for bookings to increase.

"Nobody books a national, international tour and comes the next week," Wirchenko said.

He said the theatre has cut every expense possible for the past six months, like laying off all of the staff, including Wirchenko.

"We have to be careful in the short term, control all our expenses as best we can," he said.

But there are still expenses. He said the building costs $62,000 to $70,000 per year to maintain, including utilities, taxes and insurance.

"We're that place where people make memories, we're that place where people gather together to do things that are important to them and I believe we're going to have another 10, 20, 30 years of that. But we need to make it another 10 to 16 months."

Wirchenko spoke to Saskatoon Morning in June about some the struggles arts organizations were facing.

This is the first fundraising initiative for the theatre in more than 10 years. The last big fundraising push was for renovations to the building, Wirchenko said.

The late Bob Steane gave the theatre a $40,000 gift. Affinity Credit Union, Strata Construction and the Kinsmen Club of Saskatoon have promised to match up to $40,000 in public donations. That means if thefundraiser is successful, the theatre will have $120,000 to support operations over the next year and a half.

The fundraiser features perks, so each level of donation comes with a reward.

The theatre raised $7,000 on the first day of the campaignand Wirchenko is confident it will reach thegoal or even exceed it by the time the campaign closed Oct. 30.

"I think the building has proven its worth to the community."