Councilmembers voted unanimously 7-0 to allow the City to negotiate and enter into an agreement with Cirque du Soleil for a Pier-side installation next Fall. In a discussion that covered many seemingly overlooked issues, which raised the question as to why this item was included in the Consent Calendar, concerns were raised over whether or not the increased foot and vehicle traffic would be a help or a hindrance to both the Santa Monica Pier and the adjacent Pacific Park.
Cirque first performed next to the Santa Monica Pier in 1987. More recently, Cirque has staged productions in the Beach Parking Lot 1 North space, sometimes referred to as 1550 Pacific Coast Highway, in 2009, 2012 and 2014. Following Cirque’s 2009 Santa Monica stay, the City commissioned an economic impact study which concluded the net fiscal benefit in the City was approximately $16.7 million, equivalent to $22.5 million today accounting for inflation.
However, not everyone benefited. “I’m disappointed that this item actually made it onto your agenda, given the negative impacts the event had on Pier businesses in the past,” Jeff Klocke, General Manager, Pacific Park said during the Public Input session.
“To be clear, this is not about Cirque, the brand or the company. I’m a huge fan … I’d love for them to be in Santa Monica, say at the airport, or the 2030 lot. There are a lot of great places they can be. Unfortunately a four month complete takeover of the Pier’s primary parking lot for guests is just not workable for our business,” Klocke said.
“When we supported the long term event policy in the 1550 lot, we were promised by staff that events would follow the parameters outlined in the research the city did after the successful ‘Ashes & Snow’ exhibit. That research was clear. It stated that these events were successful in the Pier lot when, number one, they’re untimed; two, their shortened duration; three, they have a low ticket price and four, they have a small footprint,” Klocke said, adding, “Cirque is actually used as the example of an event that would never come back to the pier because they didn’t check a single box.”
Klocke continued, “We know from previous runs … how much their [Cirque du Soleil’s] takeover will impact our business negatively and it’s significant. For those reasons, I proactively reached out to Cirque with a bounce back fares program that I think would benefit the Pier after Cirque leaves, provide their guests with a reason to revisit Santa Monica and produce some useful metrics for the City. At this point Cirque has declined this bounce back proposal. So I’m here to ask that you maybe consider another location … or at a minimum, build into the licensing agreement the ability to make sure that the businesses are not harmed.”
Jim Harris, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation, made a statement in the public input section of the meeting. “The Santa Monica Pier Corporation supports the return of Cirque du Soleil to Beach Parking Lot 1 North as presented in the city staff report with the following requests for city staff to pay special attention to in the license agreement with Cirque du Soleil,” he said.
In essence, Harris laid out five key requests:
1. Develop and execute a parking and traffic management plan that serves Cirque du Soleil visitors, non Cirque du Soleil visitors and employees of Pier businesses and takes into account the number of employees working on the Pier, the hours of operation of all Pier businesses and the safe transportation of pier business employees to their vehicles after those business hours.
2. The parking and traffic management plan will be presented in draft form to the Santa Monica Pier Corporation board of directors in a public meeting prior to final City approval in order to receive input from the Pier Corporation, Pier merchants, local stakeholders and the public.
3. City staff will meet with the Pier Corporation board of directors and a public meeting shortly after the first week of Cirque du Soleil performances, to receive feedback and input from the board, Pier merchants, local stakeholders and the public.
4. Representatives from Santa Monica Pier Corporation staff and the Santa Monica Pier Lessees Association will be included in weekly operations meetings with City staff and representatives of Cirque du Soleil.
5. Cirque du Soleil will continue good faith negotiations with Pacific Park.
6. Future bookings in Beach Lot 1 North need to black out and avoid the winter holidays from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day, which is a crucial time for all businesses on the Pier.
Elana Buegoff, Pier and Beach Administrator for the Economic Development Division of the City of Santa Monica gave the initial presentation and attempted to field most of the Council’s questions. She was joined by Kevin Kulas, Vice President, Global Tour Planning at Cirque Du Soleil Entertainment Group, but no one in Chambers instructed him to move closer to the microphone, so it was utterly impossible for anyone watching the meeting at home on YouTube or on CityTV to hear a single word he actually said.
Despite the fact that Cirque du Soleil has had a number of installations on our city’s sandy beaches over the past 46 years or so, the issues raised on Tuesday evening feel even more relevant since the Olympic Games are coming to Los Angeles — and Santa Monica in particular — in under five years’ time. Councilmember Gleam Davis was the first to mention this pertinent fact.
“One of the things I’ve been advocating for is that we really start to think about large events in general. Obviously Cirque is one of those, the Food and Wine Show, Frieze is another one, out at the airport and looking down the road, we have the World Cup and, of course, the Olympics in 2028,” Davis said, adding, “it seems to me that this is an opportunity to start to develop more holistic traffic plans about the whole city.”
A motion was made by Davis to authorize the City to negotiate and execute a license agreement with Cirque du Soleil to use a portion of Lot 1N from October 1, 2024 to January 24, 2025, with direction that incorporated all of Harris’s concerns and was seconded by Councilmember Jesse Zwick. Mayor Pro Tempore made one small friendly amendment to include direction on ensuring safe transportation for Pier staff after hours and the motion was passed unanimously 7-0.
scott.snowden@smdp.com