Kim Mitchell Show Cancellation Was No Surprise; We Talked About It

At about the 2 minute mark of the attached interview I asked Kim why he was scheduled to play midweek in the Soo and his response was “I got an offer to play the Soo and I said yes”.The interview I did with him was over two months ago and I knew then that things didn’t seem right and would not fly. I had even contacted a few gentleman at the GFL to interview some of the other talent that would appear during the Shriner’s week of 5 concerts in five nights and questioned them on the logic. I was told that the Shriner’s were sponsoring it as per their convention. 

Anyway this is show number 2 (Paul Brandt being the first) that has been cancelled and then after noting that Sept 11 the remaining three shows (Walk Off the Earth/Marianas Trench/Burton Cummings) had a 25% sale for two days which is unheard of; it was then that I knew my  premonition had come true. Generally speaking….the closer to the show, the higher the price goes.

My concern months ago was that in a city of 75 000 there is not enough surplus revenue to put even 1500-1800 people in the building for five nights each. I figured to break even they would need that amount. Tickets for these shows were at about $60 for the bottom end tickets which is part of the problem but the main factor was they were midweek and only two weeks into September when kids are going back to school, kids are starting lessons like skating or dancing, fuel and food prices through the roof and the whole paranoia of the Covid factor. These were the primary reasons that my intuition kicked in. 

When the Paul Brandt show got cancelled I didn’t really pay much attention but when I read Kim Mitchell just got axed I knew it was not because of any other reason than dismal tickets sales and the Shriner’s had to scramble. I emailed Kim for his comments but have not heard back as of yet.

I know a little bit about this industry and I know how difficult it is to first ink a deal and then secondly; if you don’t do proper promotion/media such as radio advertising it is hard to sell tickets. As per the show at Blaster last night almost 90% of the tickets were sold in the last week for the Killer Dwarfs show which was inked in MAY.

I have been relentless on this subject (entertainment/concerts in SSM) as some of you may be aware from my writing over the years but I know it can be done. When the arena first opened the city enjoyed top notch entertainment for many years as per the city’s relationship with a Live Nation. We saw INXS, Motley Crue, Elton John, Bryan Adams, David Copperfield, Neil Young etc etc.

I hope that sums things up if you were one of the fans that wanted to see the Paul Brandt or Kim Mitchell shows. If you were just going to wait until the show date and purchase at the gate……well you may have shot yourself in the proverbial foot…. per se (as a collective group).

Are any of the other three shows going to drop out suddenly? I don’t think so, but the last one in my opinion that would……would be the Burton Cummings as he was scheduled for the Friday. As Mike Reno of Loverboy sings “everybodys working for the weekend”