WATCH: The warm weather will certainly help crowds at the Stampede but what impact will the cool economy have on the fun? Doug Vaessen takes a look.
CALGARY – Low oil prices are putting a damper on corporate spending for the 2015 Stampede, which kicks off Friday, but local and international ticket sales are on the rise.
Exhibition and Stampede spokesperson Jennifer Booth says the event is far from sold out, with sales of corporate tents and related events down about 10 per cent compared with last year.
“We are a little bit down in our corporate sales, that would be our tented events that we have,” said Booth. “Our regular ticket sales as far as the rodeo and evening show are flat, or a little up.”
She said sponsorship of the chuckwagon races, where corporate logos are blazoned on the canvas-topped wagons, are down 21 per cent at $2.8 million.
READ MORE: Calgary Stampede – Where to get a taxi and 24/7 CTrain service
Event companies typically in charge of planning corporate event parties are also feeling the squeeze.
“Basically, it’s gone from where last year we were producing two events a day to where we’re out of the game completely,” said David Howard, president of the Event Group.
Howard said companies are opting to host their own events with lower budgets, which he’s helping them with, but the big events are scarce this year.
“The corporate Stampede parties, there will be a whole lot less of them this year,” said Howard. “Where you may have seen headline bands you’re now having local bands.”
It’s almost unheard of, but area hotels still have vacancies.
“It would have been just all gone but there is still availability on weekends,” said Calgary Tourism CEO Cindy Ady. “The pricing is better than most years, so it’s a great year to come check out the Stampede.”
READ MORE: How to save money at the 2015 Calgary Stampede
The event adds between $300 and $400 million annually to Calgary’s GDP, but Calgary Economic Development CEO Mary Moran cautions that number needs to be put in perspective. Calgary’s annual GDP is now $117 billion, and there are still few signs of when the city will see an economic recovery.
“Certainly $60 oil is having an effect on it, but there is a lot of uncertainty around policies, market access, royalty reviews and climate change,” said Moran.
Though some oil and gas companies are trimming their Stampede spending, other sectors are helping fill the gap.
Jordan Sorrenti of Sorrenti’s Catering said they’ll be serving 4,000 more people at this year’s event.
“It’s kind of a weird Stampede for us because we did have some cancellations of clients that we’ve done Stampede breakfast with for 20 years, but on the other hand we’ve picked up some new business,” said Sorrenti, who expects to serve about 29,000 breakfasts at this year’s Stampede.
READ MORE: Calgary Transit to offer discounted day passes during 2015 Stampede
Paul Vickers, president of Penny Lane Entertainment, which owns several venues including the Cowboys bar next to the Stampede grounds, said companies in the tech and manufacturing sectors have also taken up some of the slack.
“Corporate parties, big parties cancelled, no doubt,” said Vickers. “But we’ve got a lot of small companies in other sectors that weren’t touched quite as drastically by the oil prices.”
While Albertans wait for the oil prices to come back up, the Stampede hopes its final numbers will be stronger as fair weather “staycationers” are swayed by hot weather to take in the festivities.
Booth said locals are choosing to take such staycations, while international visitors have been taking advantage of the low Canadian dollar. She said both signal public interest in Stampede is higher this year, with both local and international ticket sales up around two to three per cent so far.
With files from Global’s Erika Tucker and The Canadian Press
Comments