Hello Kurt, I am not sure that the problem is with drinking. You drink, I drink, everybody does. Do I buy drinks at Tonic? Well, I used to, but frankly speaking I basically can't afford drinking at the bar and the music. I have to choose to go to the second concert or to have a drink at the first one. I think the problem with the club is not about drinking but rather with the audience which is really small. Obviously there are much more rock fans. Some tiny amount of them goes to the particular concert every once in a while, packs the clubs and drinks the drinks. In a meantime I've seen lots of Tonic concerts with the same 20 or so people who attends every show and who cannot afford extra dollar to be spent. And half of these people for one or another reason would not even pay for the ticket. Of course in that case the club will be in a financial trouble. Unfortunately, the drink minimum is a bad way to solve this problem. For me it means only that I probably won't go to the club on those days and will try to find some other venues. I know that I'm not alone in such decision. I think there are two things to be done to improve the situation. The first one you mentioned: finding grants (first of all government) and fundraising in general. The second thing is a good branding. The club should be better recognized and, in order to achieve that, it should be better organized. It won't harm if all tickets would be possible to buy in an advance. It won't harm if the schedule would be printed in several newspapers and magazines. It won't harm if the club will start promotion on the internet. Etc, etc... The only problem I see here that the club should find somebody who will do these things: fundraising and improvements. Right now they are even not answering e-mails. -- Best regards, Peter Gannushkin URL: http://www.downtownmusic.net/ Saturday, September 13, 2003, you wrote to me: KG> In a message dated 9/7/2003 2:33:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time, KG> shkin@shkin.com KG> writes:
The drink minimum so far is only for Friday and Saturday shows. Hope Tonic won't become Knit2 in trying to get as much money from customers as they could.
KG> the problem the knit had, and tonic is having, is that this audience don' KG> drink nuff. i'm not sure what the answer is, but the money problems are KG> real. they got hit with unexpected expenses when they had to redesign the KG> club to meet fire code violations. and keep in mind, even if the house is KG> packed, 25% of the door only goes so far. the knit's response was to become KG> a rock club, because those people drink. KG> and actually i do know what the answer is. art shouldn't be dependent on an KG> open market system. look at places where there are great festivals and KG> you'll find government grants.