Some insight into the Mets finances, from Volpes book. Im sure its out of date, but it gives the overall picture. The Mets budget for fiscal year 2005-2006 is $221 million. The cost of running the whole show is roughly what it takes to run the next five largest opera companies in the United States. The Mets expenses represent about 30 percent of the total spending by all American opera companies. By far the largest single item in the Mets budget is the cost of producing a thirty-three-week season in New York. That comes to approximately $143 million. The Met also spends significant sums on touring; on producing symphonic concerts at Carnegie Hall, summer concerts in New Yorks parks, and radio and television broadcasts; on preparing new productions; on maintaining the house; on paying the Mets share of Lincoln Centers costs; and on fund-raising activities too numerous to mention. Where does the Met get the money to pay for all this? Box-office revenue covers 46 percent of the expenses—$101 million. The Mets endowment, which currently totals $300 million, contributes $ 18 mil- lion. The Mets share of the all-important Lincoln Center garage and other common revenues brings in $10 million. When its all added up, we still come up short—to the tune of about $92 million. Thats a lot of cash to raise every year, especially in light of the fact that support from federal, state, and city agencies is negligible—$375,000, or less than one-fourth of 1 percent of the Mets total expenses. (In America, we dont give government credit for supporting the arts through tax deductions.) Foundations contribute $5 million; corporate giving comes to $7 million. This still leaves a very big hole. To fill it, the Met turns to its far- flung family—at last count, some 125,000 private donors, whose annual gifts range from $60 to more than $500,000, and who provide almost $80 million, or 85 percent of total contributions. The Metro- politan Opera Club, whose three hundred members keep a reserved section of Dress Circle boxes and who hobnob with one another in their private dining room, makes an annual contribution of $500,000. Two-thirds of Met donors live outside the New York metropolitan area. Somehow, the Met, in its 123-year history, has gone from being a plaything of the rich to a real grassroots organization. And were still called elitist?
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:40:40 +0000
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