2015-09-15 Infrastructure and Services Committee Att 2 to Item 4 The J Service Review 2014-15

                                                                            Service Review 2014-15
                                                                                                              The J

9. Benchmarking

It is difficult to benchmark venues like The J, as each venue varies in size, seating capacity, number
of spaces, regional specific demographics and characteristics.

9.1     Costs
Benchmarking against other Queensland Category 4 Council operated venues was attempted,
however there are only multi-use community halls in these Council areas (not appropriate for
comparison with The J). There are however, two venues nearby in Category 5 Council’s; being the
Moncrieff theatre (Bundaberg), and the Brolga theatre (Fraser Coast). Both have a focus on theatre
spaces although they are approximately double the size of The J’s theatre space.

Benchmarking against other venues was also available through the Sunshine Coast Performance and
Community Venues Service Plan 2014-2029. The graph below shows a combination of benchmarking
and comparison information from the Category 5 Council’s directly and the information found in the
SCC venues service plan.

Benchmarking can be problematic with respect to accuracy of information and other factors, but in this
case it highlights:

     On a full cost basis The J’s net operating costs are $27.22 per property – higher than the two
      regional facilities but slightly lower than SCC.
     When only factoring in operational (or controllable) costs The J net operating costs are $11.28 per
      property – comparable with the two regional facilities
     Corporate overheads for The J are 23% of operating costs (excl. depreciation), whereas
      overheads for the Moncrieff Theatre (Bundaberg) are 14% of operating costs. No overheads are
      applied by Fraser Coast to the Brolga Theatre which makes the comparison problematic. It should
      be noted that for a small entity such as The J an overhead range of between 15% and 25% is
      considered acceptable according to the AEC Group’s overhead analysis (albeit The J being at the
      higher end of the range).

(Note: Corporate overhead and depreciation information not available from SCC, therefore no
operational cost per rateable property has been included below)




                                  Cost per rateable property
                $27.22                                                                       $28.19
    $30.00
    $25.00                               $20.14                    $21.62
    $20.00
                         $11.28                   $12.81
    $15.00                                                                  $8.95
    $10.00
     $5.00                                                                                            $0.00
     $0.00
             Noosa Shire Council      Bundaberg Regional Fraser Coast Regional Sunshine Coast Council
                   (The J)             Council (Moncrieff Council (Brolga Theatre)
                                           Theatre)

                     Full cost per rateable property       Operational cost per rateable property




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