Bingo Country Stratford owner warns of shutdown amid renewed discussions with city for new hall

Despite promises of city staff coming to the table to discuss alternative locations for a bingo hall in Stratford, the owner of Bingo Country Stratford is concerned a suitable location won’t be found and provincial regulatory conditions won’t be met before the organization’s current, five-year lease for use of space at the Burnside Agriplex ends on Sept. 30.

Earlier this summer, the organization that raises money for more than 30 different charities, non-profits and services clubs in Stratford, St. Marys and across Perth County was notified by the City of Stratford that it would not be renewing Bingo Country’s lease of a 10,000 square-foot hall at the Burnside Agriplex where bingo has been played for the past 15 years.

“They’re not going to be able to find me a space,” Bingo Country Stratford owner John Rinn told the Beacon Herald Tuesday. “What they have available is not a viable opportunity. The (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) wouldn’t allow me to move into a space like that because I couldn’t meet the requirements of security and so on. …If I get 30 days (in the current space beyond Sept. 30), I would be very surprised. It won’t be on a lease, I don’t believe.

“I’m out of Stratford basically unless someone has a building in Stratford. And we’re going to have to do something pretty quick here because I’ve got to haul a lot of stuff away (to my warehouse) up in Lindsay, Ontario, which will keep the majority of the equipment.”

The hall at the Agriplex has room for 300 people, while Bingo Country averaged around 40 players per bingo event last year. The current lease between the city and Bingo Country allows the group to use the hall from 6-11 pm during the week and from 2 to 11 pm on weekends, though the hall remains locked outside those times to meet Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario security requirements.

“During the 2023 budget deliberations, council gave direction for staff to increase programming at the Agriplex,” city community services director Tim Wolfe said during a discussion at Monday’s city council meeting around extending Bingo Country’s lease until it finds a new home. ”… In reviewing the hall usage by bingo, this area has been long monopolized for years with bingo having exclusive use of this area 24 hours a day, seven days a week resulting in the area being vacant for most of the hours during the day and weekends.

“This is not good utilization of the facility and with the Agriplex being a multi-use facility, the city isn’t using the space as it was intended for. There have been many programs identified by staff that can use this hall in which revenue will be generated. There are also programs which bring a lot of value to the community that don’t always have revenue streams attached that are just as important to have (that would be) inclusive for all residents of Stratford.”

When pushed by Coun. Taylor Briscoe for more information on what programs will or could inhabit the space currently occupied by Bingo Country, Wolfe said the space was being considered for seniors and youth programming, community engagement efforts by the city, initiatives identified in the city’s sports-tourism and culture plans, as a training facility and for conventions and other events. Wolfe also noted the city intends to modernize the space once the Bingo Country lease is up, and that city staff have been speaking with someone interested in renting the space in November.

Though Wolfe said the city has offered Bingo Country alternative spaces in the neighboring Rotary Complex, specifically in the Tim Taylor Lounge — a room roughly a quarter of the size of Bingo Country’s current space that comfortably sits 91 people — Bingo Country and the local volunteers who help run bingo events say those spaces won’t work for a number of reasons.

“The bingo hall is 10,000 square feet and the Tim Taylor Lounge is 3,000 square feet and there just isn’t the room,” said Coun. Bonnie Henderson, who introduced the original motion Monday night to extend Bingo Country’s lease, and also helps run local bingo games as a volunteer in support of the city’s civic beautification and environmental awareness advisory committee.

”…Giving them two months to find a place is unreasonable. There’s so much up there they have to move. There’s things on the wall that show you what the number is, there’s microphones in the ceiling so a caller can hear what’s going on. …You have to have a vault and you have to have an office. You need a room where they’re sorting stuff, and then they have three more storage areas where they store paperwork. There’s an area where you sell the (bingo cards) from. There’s an area where you charge up the (electronic bingo boards and other equipment). So this won’t fit in the Tim Taylor room, unfortunately.”

However, after council voted down two separate motions Monday to extend Bingo Country’s lease to give it time to find a new space, councilors voted to refer the matter back to city staff to meet with Bingo Country in hopes of finding a solution.

Even if the city and Rinn come to an agreement over a new space or Rinn finds a privately owned space in Stratford that would meet provincial bingo requirements, he said it will still take time to sort out any necessary zone changes with the city and get approval from the gaming commission.

Yet Rinn says he will continue looking for a new bingo hall in Stratford and he encourages anyone with a space that might work to contact him at [email protected].

In the meantime, Rinn said his nine employees who work solely in Stratford — Rinn has employees who work at other bingo halls he operates in Brampton, North Bay, Cobourg and Lindsay — will likely be out of work by the end of September, at least until a new Stratford bingo hall is found.

In Stratford, Bingo Country retains 55 per cent of bingo revenue to cover the costs of administration, employees, equipment and space rental, while the organizations it supports receive 45 per cent.

According to a report presented to the city’s finance and labor relations committee in March, the charities, non-profits and services club supported by Bingo Country brought in a total of roughly $108,500 across 377 charity bingo events.

Last year, the city issued 36 charitable lottery licenses to 19 local organizations that hosted events through Bingo Country, bringing in $45,600 in municipal revenue.

Rinn says Bingo Country Stratford paid the city more than $120,000 annually to lease the hall at the Agriplex under its current lease agreement, however city staff had not responded to a request for information on revenue generated through the lease with Bingo Country before end of day Tuesday . A report to Stratford’s community services subcommittee from November 2018 summarizing terms of the current five-year lease agreement shows Bingo Country was to pay $81,000 to the city for lease of the space from Sept. 30, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023.

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