P.E.I. may spend $150,000 to lure Aerosmith

Last Updated: Monday, March 19, 2007 | 9:26 AM AT

CBC News

The P.E.I. government could invest up to $150,000 to help bring Aerosmith to the Island this summer.

Tourism Minister Philip Brown won't say exactly how much the government is going to spend.

Aerosmith is expected to play at the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre in July.
(Claire Greenway/Getty Images)

However, last year the province contributed about $70,000 to help bring the Black Eyed Peas to the province, and Brown has said that show pumped between $2 million and $3 million into the economy.
  
Brown said the Aerosmith show this summer could bring in twice that amount, and he hinted that the province's contribution this year may also double, to about $150,000.

"It would be a whole lot less risk [to the organizers] for this event to take place in Halifax or Moncton or Montreal or Calgary, so the people that are going to benefit, which includes the taxpayers of P.E.I., have to be prepared to share some of the risk," Brown said.

Aerosmith is expected to perform in the infield at the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre in late July.

The performance is not mentioned on Aerosmith's fan-club website, but the site does say the group is scheduled to perform in Sarnia, Ont., July 19.
 
Last week, Charlottetown city council voted to pay for police and fire services for a major concert this summer, although there was no band confirmed, and no price tag attached to those services.

Rumours have been spreading for weeks that Aerosmith would be the band.

Concert promoter David Carver, who brought the Black Eyed Peas to the city in September, said he was just a few steps away from following up that act with Aerosmith this year.

"Aerosmith is without a doubt one of the top three concert-selling and album-selling bands ever," Carver told last week's council meeting.