03-21-2018, 02:35 AM
(03-20-2018, 08:44 AM)jeffster Wrote:(03-19-2018, 11:06 PM)jordan2423 Wrote: Considering you have no evidential basis to support any of those numbers for ezra, your numbers are .
You're comparing a 1 day event to an event that is pretty much 2-3 weeks long.
There's literally no point in comparing numbers.
As someone who was working on the ground with Laurier students that year - the problem with the tent party was that your ticket required you to show up at a certain time (8am/10am/1pm/4pm? or similar) , if you missed it your specific time your ticket was no longer valid, and once you left you were not permitted to re-enter.
If it had been run as any normal organized festival/tent party (security at gate, enter/exit as you please) it would have been much more popular. Many of the students I spoke to (several hundred, so this is not a small sample size) went but left because they got too cold and didn't bring a jacket, or they were hungry and wanted to go get food (or have a less expensive drink at home), not all of their friends could get tickets, or they lost track of time/got held up and missed their limited window for entry.
I can't say, in their position, I wouldn't do the same - I would rather go hang out with all of my friends on Ezra where we can come & go as we please than have to show up before 10am and pay $12/drink for the rest of the day with no chance of reprieve from the cold.
They also combined the tent party with a concert (The Chainsmokers) which was just silly.
For someone that stated my numbers for Ezra are pretty much better off not even mentioning, you go onto to say that Oktoberfest is 2-3 week event when it's 9 days. Not even close to two weeks. But whatever.
Since you're an expert with the Ezra event; what are the net benefits to the community? Obviously if I said it's zero and you say that that is incorrect, so enlighten me. I explained how Oktoberfest benefited the community (in terms of donations in excess of $1M plus job creation, and I'll add, a boost to our tourist and exposure to the region). I won't included the $22M that is earned for the event itself and the vendors, the money lines the pockets of the those people. But I would for sure love to have info on Ezra. So far, the only number I could work out was roughly was about $30,000 to the Peel police.
I'm just interesting in a good discussion.
One thing I will add; Ezra is an exclusive event. Ocktoberfest in an inclusive event. That's important to remember.
First of all, I never said I was an expert with the Ezra event.
That is a strawman argument.
Secondly, simply saying it has zero benefits or close to zero is factually incorrect because you have no evidential basis to support that answer.
I'm just saying, people were whining and crying rivers (mostly older folks) when Toronto rented that big yellow rubber duck in the summer, complaining about why their tax dollars are going to waste for a $120,000 bigger rubber duck that sat in the lake.
Later on, it was to be found in an economic impact study that, due to increased tourism because of the duck:
- the total economic impact of the festival was estimated to be $7.6 million. Non-local attendees and event operations resulted in about $10.6 million in new spending.
- local residents spent $16.5 million related to the event, including $4.8 million at local restaurants.
- an estimated $3.6 million in tax revenue was generated by event-related spending.
- 31 per cent of attendees lived more than 40 km from the festival site, and a record number of visitors from the United States attended.
So there's that.
Perhaps if city officials of Waterloo region actually made an event out of it, ON Ezra street where students are already going to be, selling St. Paddys food, merchandise, and yes even beer, then they can have a larger economic impact.
But the year that they attempted - and miserably failed - to make an enclosed event in a tent that wasn't even on ezra, showed me how incompetent they were.
Students flocking to Ezra street for St. Paddys has been going on for decades, what makes you think they're going to flock off of Ezra street to a tent where they have to pay for a ticket AND then pay for overpriced beer?
How incompetent do you have to be? It honestly boggles my mind how stupid one has to be.