Themodel model

Jun 27 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

MODEL. Economic, not size zero. I’ve been talking a lot lately about culture creating footfall, which means people turning up with cash to spend on refuelling the regeneration engine.

After all, it is the economic model show business has been working to since Shakespeare and Barnum took their respective circuses on tour. Basically, roll up, pitch a tent and put on a show that people will want to watch.

Charge them for doing it and the cash earned should pay the wages, cover the rent and feed the jugglers and players until the next gig. Actually, it’s the same model that most businesses use but, instead of a show, substitute goods. In football, substitute a game.

Whether it’s clothes, cakes or cars, the model follows the same process. Cash out for development, production and marketing, revenue in from sales. Culture is no different.

True, many cultural endeavours will never take anything at a box office, but that does not alter the model. It simply means that the revenue side of the equation must include grant or sponsorship rather than commercial sales.

So, despite the energy tax windfalls, the Treasury must be currently salting away, grant aid for culture will always be precarious. Therefore, one of the tasks in the months ahead will be to examine some of the 08 projects to see if there are any sustainable events around which a viable economic model could be developed.

An annual Macca concert would probably work, but, in the realms of everyday reality, perhaps something like the Viennese Balls might have more potential.

The level of demand and interest was huge, but it was free. If we put it on again and charged admission, would it survive?

Staying with the Viennese theme, bookings for the Klimt exhibition have apparently reached the 65,000 mark, amazing in itself, but at £8 a ticket it looks like the Tate may have its own sustainability model.

A far cry from Vienna, though, is Croxteth, where last Sunday I attended the Alt Valley’s Got Talent event.

Twelve local acts provided a couple of hours of good entertainment and while it was helped by grant aid and the ICDC at John Moores University, it may possibly contain a potential model.

A few years ago, a similar event in Kensington, also backed by ICDC, charged a small admission price to help cover costs. Like Croxteth Comp, that was packed out and provided a great night’s entertainment.

So the model here is that local communities can get together to create local entertainment that can also generate revenue.

I’ll come back to this, and how it differs from the model for civic festivals, but for now let’s remember that the two Simons, Cowell and Fuller, had to start somewhere.

They then just worked to find the right economic model.