Mareel - Cinema & Music Venue

[unlinkedstudent]

... The fact is, over half the ticket sales for Mareel come from without Lerwick/Scalloway, therefore country people are using the facility well.

 

Care to divulge where you got this data from? Ticket sales from the database? Information gleaned during a staff meeting? I apologise in advance if this information is available in the public domain but I don't recall seeing a breakdown of this nature in the press or elsewhere.

 

In the paper yesterday, as mentioned by Jonathan Wills. I don't work for Shetland Arts.

 

Thanks for that. However, Jonathan Wills actually said 53% of debit and credit card sales came from a ZE2 postcode - can you not pay cash on the door then?

[shetlandpeat]

I was not being over dramatic, if I did not know better, the posts here about community halls have been about them needing knocking down or major refurbs. Hence the comment "I think not". Sorry if you missed that bit.

 

I now sorta wonder that Shetland folk rely heavily on the council for everything. Perhaps this could be the reason for some of the uproar as soon as a service is reduced. There are other grants available, someone needs to go out and get them, it does seem that it is the Arts that are the only ones with two oars as they have gotten their grants.

 

During some of the community bids I have looked at here, they ask for money to do repairs a handyman can do, yet they have been community focal points. The problem, is keeping the halls serviceable, blaming the council is easy, it seems asking the community to jump in with skills, tools and spare materials is very hard. There must be folk who could volunteer to actually do repairs or even take on some of the more larger jobs. The more that can happen in this way, the more chance of obtaining a grant is possible. As I said, there is money available for such projects from The Big Lottery Fund. I would think the priority still, is to keep the community involved.

 

The Mareel can be used to highlight halls, hold specific events that can highlight the art in those communities and then push folk to go visit from the tourist trade. It is still a new idea and hopefully evolving.

 

Of course there will be cases where all has been tried, alas, try again should be the motto.

[Fatal Paper Cut]

^ Or maybe there's just some who having believed from the start the Mereel was the wrong design on the wrong site, and at £12.1 Million was grossly overpriced for what it was.

 

Yes, the people who complained about it in the 1st place. Which I covered in the 1st sentence of that post.

 

Some people will always find something to complain about because they don't agree with X, Y, or Z. That's what's happening with Mareel, because they either didn't like it in the 1st place, don't like the idea of it getting extra funding when their kid's school is under threat or their local hall has a leaky roof. Like the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time.It's like those people who resent paying a license fee for the BBC. You can lay out all the reasons why the BBC is good and popular, all the TV channels and radio stations, websites and magazines, news and current affairs, education and entertainment that the BBC provides in what equates to amazing value for money. They're still not going to agree with it because they fundamentally don't like it. Simple as.

 

And yes, there are a litany of missed opportunities in Shetland that I could have listed if I were so minded or pedantic enough to do so. But like I said, there's plenty of examples where money has been spent with nothing to show for it. Here, we do. Maybe you do take issue with some of the facilities, or the design or that not every gig is full to capacity. That's your prerogative. Still doesn't make the place a failure though. And given that SADA's case was presented to the council and they spent over an hour discussing it (with it would seem, further meetings to come), reports to be written and examined in detail and an impending court case with details that you, I and the majority of the 23,000 folk in Shetland or the few dozen that complain vocally in social media, websites and forums are not privy to, we should maybe just trust that the right decisions have been made for good reasons.

[Fatal Paper Cut]

Thanks for that. However, Jonathan Wills actually said 53% of debit and credit card sales came from a ZE2 postcode - can you not pay cash on the door then?

 

Yes, course you can. Maybe I should have been more specific, but I don't have the paper in front of me to go over every single line in detail. Still, 53% or debit/credit card sales coming from outwith ZE1 is a lot and an indication of how well the facility is used. Certainly everytime I drive past the pace or pop in to buy tickets for something, the car park is full. It was last night. It was earlier in the week. I'm sure it will be again next week too.

[ll]

Despite having plenty of cash poured into Mareel in da toon, dey will still likely find plenty to carry out repairs to the town hall whilst country halls suffer.

 

Dir no much chance of da fancy stained glass windows being boarded up wi plywood when thousands can be spent in da toon once more.

 

Good too, to see country roads remain covered with ice, but Lerwick's roads (and pavements) cleared so everyone can get to Mareel.

 

The country folk will maybe get the last laugh:

 

Most predictions say the warming of the planet will continue and likely will accelerate. Oceans will likely continue to rise as well, but predicting the amount is an inexact science. A recent study says we can expect the oceans to rise between 2.5 and 6.5 feet (0.8 and 2 meters) by 2100, enough to swamp many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast. More dire estimates, including a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, push sea level rise to 23 feet (7 meters), enough to submerge London and Los Angeles.

[Ghostrider]

.....we should maybe just trust that the right decisions have been made for good reasons.

 

Having run with that one in times past, and been let down almost as often when the SIC came anywhere near anything, it takes a brave (wo)man to hold out hope in that philosophy.

[Seaflech]

I'd love to know how you reach the conclusion that the car park is almost always full because according to the 24hr live webcam it isn't but granted, given the horrendous glare on screen from the car park lights, for the few sold out events, it does appear near to capacity or full - but not always.

 

I think that if one of the most visited web pages on my computer was the 24hr live webcam of a car park, I would be looking for some serious psychological help.

[unlinkedstudent]

Thanks for that. However, Jonathan Wills actually said 53% of debit and credit card sales came from a ZE2 postcode - can you not pay cash on the door then?

 

Yes, course you can. Maybe I should have been more specific, but I don't have the paper in front of me to go over every single line in detail. Still, 53% or debit/credit card sales coming from outwith ZE1 is a lot and an indication of how well the facility is used. Certainly everytime I drive past the pace or pop in to buy tickets for something, the car park is full. It was last night. It was earlier in the week. I'm sure it will be again next week too.

 

I do have the paper in front of me. Okay, so 53% of debit/credit card sales come from outwith ZE1 but the press report doesn't say that they are all ticket sales and there isn't a breakdown showing the percentage of repeat attendees - in other words, one person could have attended five times in a week, bought a ticket with their debit/credit card, bought further goods in the foyer with same card, and likewise bought goods in the cafe with the same card. I'm sure you'll agree (and I hope you don't think I'm being too presumptious here) that without knowing how such data was gathered, the methodology, etc., such a statistic is, to a degree, meaningless. That said, whilst people's addresses are contained within the database, I wasn't aware that when paying for a cuppa via a debit card that the recipient would know your postcode so they may well relate just to sales of tickets. A more detailed questionnaire/research exercise would be required to ascertain precisely the geographical breakdown of Mareel's visitors.

 

Yes, the car park was full last night but then as stated earlier, it ain't exactly the largest of car park and at least one row of cars on the left had been there since the morning (staff perhaps?).

[unlinkedstudent]

I'd love to know how you reach the conclusion that the car park is almost always full because according to the 24hr live webcam it isn't but granted, given the horrendous glare on screen from the car park lights, for the few sold out events, it does appear near to capacity or full - but not always.

 

I think that if one of the most visited web pages on my computer was the 24hr live webcam of a car park, I would be looking for some serious psychological help.

 

It certainly isn't on mine!

[shetlandpeat]

I have no idea what the point of your argument is US, what are you trying to prove? Now you are a carpark voyeur. How could you know if the car park is full or not at all times

because according to the 24hr live webcam

how sad is that.....

[unlinkedstudent]

I have no idea what the point of your argument is US, what are you trying to prove? Now you are a carpark voyeur. How could you know if the car park is full or not at all times

because according to the 24hr live webcam

how sad is that.....

 

The car park being full does not equate to a sell out at Mareel. I don't watch the webcam all the time, nor do I visit it daily. When I have visited the website, it shows a speeded-up version of the last 24 hours and from that you can see how full the car park was at certain hours of the day. You see, presumably, the staff arriving. It usually gets at its busiest shortly before 9pm which coincides, no doubt, with the 9pm cinema showing.

 

Should I not watch the other live webcams serving Shetland either then?

[shetlandpeat]

You still have not told on what you are trying to prove, with the petty arguing over card sales and the level of occupancy (remember, the argument used about car parking) of the car park.

 

If you want to use the services of the cams on offer, they are great. It is nice to see my mate play at the Cross, to see the New Year in and how I wish I was there, though it was always better years ago, though the best was 1999/2000.

 

Alas, continually trying to find argument, that in no way will change anything but the length of this thread seems to be a folly.

 

What I would like to hear is your opinion on a visit, I am sure you could get your car share if you cannot afford to go on your own. Unless you have been and not told anyone.

 

 

two English women appeared at the counter after seeing a film, I presume, and one of them proceeded to speak extremely loudly about what she thought was wrong with Mareel (this was right in front of the young boy who was serving me).

 

#rumbled??

[Fatal Paper Cut]

I do have the paper in front of me.

 

Oh, joy.

 

 

Okay, so 53% of debit/credit card sales come from outwith ZE1 but the press report doesn't say that they are all ticket sales and there isn't a breakdown showing the percentage of repeat attendees - in other words, one person could have attended five times in a week, bought a ticket with their debit/credit card, bought further goods in the foyer with same card, and likewise bought goods in the cafe with the same card. I'm sure you'll agree (and I hope you don't think I'm being too presumptious here) that without knowing how such data was gathered, the methodology, etc., such a statistic is, to a degree, meaningless.

 

Presumptuous isn't the word I was thinking of, no...

 

That said, whilst people's addresses are contained within the database, I wasn't aware that when paying for a cuppa via a debit card that the recipient would know your postcode so they may well relate just to sales of tickets. A more detailed questionnaire/research exercise would be required to ascertain precisely the geographical breakdown of Mareel's visitors..

 

I'm sorry, I actually switched off wading through all that. Yeah, we could probably break it down further, including which customers who bought tea take sugar. Then SADA can order the appropriate amount of those little satchets or other pointless exercises in pedantry. The point is, from the AVAILABLE information (ticket sales at the cinema being 3-4 times higher than expected, 53% of card sales coming from ZE2 postcodes, the car park being full regularly, films selling out) that despite what some would like to believe, Mareel is popular and doing quite well. Unless of course, I was to interpret your points about the ticket sales, still going on about the size of the car park and numerous other posts on this thread, along with your posts on Facebook and on the Shetland Time website the other day as being implacably opposed to Mareel in every single way from the get go (despite protestations to the contrary) and are now digging up every little available detail and scrutinising it to the nth degree while on a somewhat ridiculous and incredibly petty quest to prove it an abject failure, including but not limited to watching a 24hr webcam feed of the car park. But that'd be insane, wouldn't it?

 

Yes, the car park was full last night but then as stated earlier, it ain't exactly the largest of car park

 

Yep. Had to park in the Museum car park last night. AND IT WAS FINE.

[unlinkedstudent]

You still have not told on what you are trying to prove, with the petty arguing over card sales and the level of occupancy (remember, the argument used about car parking) of the car park. ...

 

I'd hardly refer to income and expenditure, be it through sales (cash, cheque, debit card or otherwise) to be 'petty'.

 

two English women appeared at the counter after seeing a film, I presume, and one of them proceeded to speak extremely loudly about what she thought was wrong with Mareel (this was right in front of the young boy who was serving me).

 

#rumbled??

 

I resent that last comment, despite your 'wink'. I do not complain at frontline staff and I'm of the opinion a lot concerning Mareel lies with the management, not the frontline workers. I wouldn't gob off either in front of Mareel frontline staff. Yes, I have criticised Mareel on here and as to elsewhere, I've said not to have a go at frontline staff.

 

However, if I was waiting to be served anywhere and sales staff were more concerned with discussing what happened in the last episode of Corrie or their own love life with their colleagues and ignored serving me then yeah, I'd make some comment directly to them, and not just in earshot, or ask for the Manager. Likewise, be it in our local shop, Grotesco's or elsewhere, I tend to thank people for their assistance.

[unlinkedstudent]

@Fatal Paper Cut

 

The devil, as they say, is in the detail. The point is, from the AVAILABLE information, we don't know PRECISELY how well Mareel is doing. We don't know PRECISELY how popular Mareel is.

 

As for posting on the Shetland Times' website the other day, wasn't me. I don't recall posting on there recently, especially on the last three articles relating to Mareel. However, Ghostie did, but you should know the difference between his posts and mine; I can spell better than he can!