Halifax soccer fans will pay more for stadium tickets, alcohol as new surcharges take effect

Halifax has added a surcharge to beer at the Wanderers Grounds.

When fans fill the stands at the Wanderers Grounds this season, they’re going to pay more to do so.

Derek Martin, who owns the Halifax Wanderers soccer team, says the Halifax Regional Municipality is adding a $3 surcharge per ticket and a five per cent surcharge on all alcoholic beverages sold at the soccer stadium.

If a game is a sellout, that would bring in $22,500 for the city from ticket sales alone.

“It was a bit of a surprise, it would have been better, I think, to have it all worked out well in advance of the season starting,” says Martin.

“We work really hard to keep our prices as low as we can, it’s difficult when they are raised on you, but it is what it is. We’ll just have to find ways to work through it and work around it for this season,” he adds.

This also applies to the Halifax Tides, as the team’s first game with the new surcharges was Monday.

“We understand supporters are frustrated by additional costs being introduced during the season, and we share those concerns,” says Tides President Val Malone in a statement to CTV News Atlantic. “This surcharge was not initiated by the club and was communicated to us as a municipal requirement.”

In a statement to CTV News Atlantic on behalf of the municipality, public affairs advisor Graeme Benjamin says the surcharge was, “introduced in order for the municipality to recoup part of its investment in the infrastructure and management of the Wanders Grounds facility.”

He notes the municipality worked with the Tides and Wanderers to decide on the amount for the surcharges that are reasonable for fans, while also working to ensure operational costs were offset.

Martin says a good portion of the current cost to run the stadium comes from the fact it’s a temporary venue and there’s a lot of work that goes into getting it game ready. He adds there’s not much he can do to offset the new charges for supporters.

“We already pay one of the highest rental rates in the country for a venue, and especially a venue that doesn’t have the services that you would expect it to have in terms of running water and flushable toilets,” says Martin.

Benjamin says the intention is that the operation of the Wanderers Grounds is net neutral for the municipality at some point in the future.

“The surcharges to tickets play a role in this objective,” he says.

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