Culture advocate Bruce Owen is right.

The city doesn’t need another study on whether a 1,800-seat theatre is feasible at this point in Barrie’s development.

A look at large theatres in other communities should be enough to suggest a large theatre is not feasible at this time, at least not without sizable municipal subsidies.

Brampton’s Rose Theatre, a $55-million 880-seat venue, receives a subsidy of $800,000 a year from the city. Brampton purposely built the theatre with fewer than 1,000 seats so as not to compete with venues in Toronto.

The River Run Theatre in Guelph has three halls, the largest being 785 seats. The $15-million (1995 dollars) complex receives $500,000 annually from the city.

Plans for theatres in other communities suggest the oft-quoted $30-million cost for a large theatre in Barrie, which came from a Superbuild application nearly 10 years old, is out of date.

The Brampton theatre, with 880 seats, cost $55 million in 2006. Burlington is building an 800-seat theatre, and costs, now over $35 million, continue to rise. Sudbury is considering a 1,800-seat theatre, the same size as the one Owen now envisions for Barrie, at a cost of $75 million.

Owen, a lawyer and former MPP, is one of the city’s leading culture advocates. He brings world-class talent to Barrie through the Barrie Concerts and the Colours of Music series. He has long been an advocate of building a large theatre in Barrie.

That vision is tied to the Barlow Report, a feasibility study commissioned in 1999. The report resulted in a recommendation to build a 1,200-seat performance arts centre. (Owen recently told council the city now needs a 1,800-seat theatre).

In 2001, Barrie sought funding for the proposed centre from the Ontario Superbuild/Canada Infrastructure Program. The idea was to build the centre near the library, on the so-called H block property. The city hired consultants to get more details for the project, and was told the estimated $30-million price tag might not be enough.

The federal/provincial application was not approved and discussion of a new theatre faded into the background, until a new vision emerged a few years ago. That vision, now official city policy, is dramatically different from the one espoused in the Barlow Report, and by large-theatre advocates.

In 2006, the city approved its cultural plan, Building A Creative Future. The plan called for a small theatre to be built first, and then a larger one a few years later, as audience growth occurred.

The vision, also known as the Handy report after its author, architect Ted Handy, is supported by the city’s new culture director, Quammie Williams. He said the strategy of building audience first, and then adding space, is less risky than the ‘build it and they will come’ large-theatre strategy.

Early in June, a staff report informed council a small theatre would be filled at least 200 times a year, while “ … research told us that in the existing cultural climate, a larger venue of 1,200 seats would only be utilized nine times per year, which makes it difficult to warrant such a large expenditure until it is identified where the opportunities are for large audience growth.”

A small theatre will have immediate benefits by providing a permanent stage to the many performing arts groups in the community. The city’s decision to purchase the old Scotiabank on the southwest corner of the Five Points, and convert it into a small theatre is sound strategy.

The initial plan calls for the theatre to have a flexible seating capacity ranging from 120 to about 220 seats. The city has created a user group advisory committee to help shape the theatre as renovations occur in 2009.

This type of build small, grow big approach makes sense for a city the size of Barrie. It’s also a grassroots strategy that advocates building a homegrown performance industry, with the accompanying employment and creative opportunities that entails.

Large-theatre advocates are pushing the city to get behind their vision, and work on a business plan they say is essential to getting funding from other levels of government. Council discussed the option of an updated feasibility study, but put off any decision on such a study until next year’s budget process.

A new feasibility study could cost upwards of $100,000. It’s not needed. The city has a good plan, and should stick with it. A large theatre comes with too many risks and too many unanswered questions: how much will it cost, who’ll pay for it, who’ll perform in it and who’ll fill it?