The Balineum is proposed for an area which has no other main entertainment venues, concert halls, small sporting arenas, or exhibition centres of this scale. Both the London Arena and Excel centre are very much larger and out of the question financially for the scale of show we intend to produce and cater for. Local theatres such as The Emery are much smaller and geared toward small community projects, or semi professional work. The location is perfect, being well placed near the largest and fastest growing business centre in London, and perfectly served by public transportation, both road and rail. With such a vacuum in the locale, the situation is perfect for such a plan.

Live entertainment is still one of the most popular pastimes, offering residents in an area a diversion, and attracting numbers of visitors from outside the immediate area. This has a knock on effect of increasing interest in the surrounding area to both visitors and other businesses. Thus a good venue offering a popular and varied programme should succeed both for itself and for its community.

We intend that The Balineum should perform in just such a way, offering a sizable venue attractive to the largest visiting companies, artists, bands and orchestras, a cinema facility where we can show strong independent films as well as our own in-house productions, where we can stage indoor sporting events like snooker, boxing, karate, judo, and film them for broadcast, and where we can stage conventions, fairs, themed events and expos.

2.1.1 Market Demographics

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Market Geographics

By producing a full spectrum of high profile shows and events we will look to attract as wide a demographic as possible from across London and beyond. Our intention is to make everyone from our catchment area, and later from far beyond, to consider us first when planning a night out. Eventually, and we do recognize this as a lofty goal, we hope that we can cause enough of a stir that we will gain a Europe-wide reputation for daring, innovation, quality and choice in much the same way that many venues in mainland European cities have, and with the Channel tunnel link terminating nearby, and the possibility of Olympic Games involvement a very real possibility should the 2012 London bid be successful, it is a goal which we believe will be within our grasp.

Market Demographics

Most people who go to the theatre go to see live live shows. Such shows are hugely popular, but with local theatres and venues concentrating on community productions to the exclusion of all else, and major venues almost exclusively on musical theatre, we recognize that there is a void to be filled. Show-goers are not an exclusive group. These people can be of any age, any nationality, and any gender. However, almost exclusively, the people that go to live shows are of middle income bracket, usually because it is only that income bracket and above that can afford to go. We want to change that. We may have limited control over the prices hiring shows may wish to charge for their production tickets. However, our policy for in house productions and shows will be to charge the minimum we can feasibly. We are going to look for the lowest possible ticket prices, and find ways to offer subsidized tickets to certain demographics, so we can include all levels of economic status, and start to encourage people from all backgrounds to explore the wider variety shows on offer.

Market Behaviours

People who go to venues for a night out tend to be loyal, and develop a habit of attending the same venue. However, they tend to do so relatively infrequently (with the exception of nightclubs), partly because of the cost, and partly because shows often run for a whole month or longer, and people will not often want to see the same show twice in such a short space of time. Utilizing our two auditorium venue vision, we can regularly and frequently change our programme, bringing in shows and events, that both compliment and contrast with our in house productions. This constantly shifting format should in the early stages of development, serve to attract most of the people some of the time, and we expect interest to be heightened and attendances to increase once people develop the habit of coming to us.

This habit should be further increased by the bars restaurants and cafe, again with very little competition in the area which should serve to attract the non-theatre goers and hopefully pique their curiosity enough to make them consider the shows on offer.

Furthermore, the comprehensive nature of the facilities on offer should serve to make us attractive to hiring production companies, particularly in the cable and satellite broadcast fields, who would welcome a one stop production shop.

Put simply, there is not another venue like this in the area, and nothing that offers comparable facilities in London. We expect that The Balineum will become a venue in demand for performance professionals, for corporate conferencing, and for sporting promotions. Furthermore, we expect facilities like the television studio and editing facilities to come into great demand once the

2.1.3 Market Trends

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Performance trends and audience tastes tend to shift from season to season and year to year. Some things we can be sure will always attract an audience, but others tend to follow a faddish appeal. By having such a flexible venue we allow ourselves the ability to ebb and flow with these trends to continue to cater to public demand with the best possible in the genres they are looking for. We can also offer a range of productions and events that go against these trends, to widen choice, expose people to different art at entertainment forms, and hopefully set some trends of our own.

As theatre becomes more and more commercial, and with the burst of established companies touring shows, more and more people are becoming interested and aware of the value that live theatre has for our communities. We want to get to a stage where our own productions begin here, then go on tour themselves

2.1.4 Market Growth

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We expect initial curiosity to be reasonably good, and will look to capitalize on this by ensuring that we have strong programmes well publicised in advance. We estimate a market growth of approximately 20% in the first two years, but believe that this will be increased once we begin to collect information on our audiences to market directly to them, once people become more aware of our venue by our external and widespread publicity, and once touring shows, educational programmes, publicity events etc. raise awareness to saturation point.

The following is an outline of The Balineum's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Though we will not be going from a standing start, we nevertheless recognize that until we become established and fully self sufficient, our two biggest weaknesses will be time and funding.

2.2.1 Strengths

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• Highly accessible venue
• Dedication of casts crews and management.
• Superb production facility
• Creative company members.
• A productive and cooperative working environment.
• Members are well-educated in areas of expertise.
• Efficient in use of materials.
• Designed to adapt to the market's needs.
• Offering an affordable theatre experience.

2.2.2 Weaknesses

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• Limited financial resources
• Limited production time.
• No existing audience base.
• Limited public awareness of venue.
• Public perception of area and of building.

2.2.3 Opportunities

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• Strong existing performer base.
• Good existing show portfolio.
• Good contacts within the industry.
• Total absence of sizable venues in the area.
• No other similar entertainment package offered by any other venue in London.
• Superb backup facilities offered by the rest of the centre.

2.2.4 Threats

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• Premature reduction or loss of funding and sponsorship prior to self sufficiency being achieved.
• Poor reviews.
• Any reduction in audience attendance (most hurtful).
• Challenges securing high profile performances.

2.3 Alternative Providers

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Very simply, in this area, there are none. The local area has venues which are very small and offer limited programmes, though there is one cinema in the Docklands complex, and The London Arena is close but not in constant use, and because of the size difference, would offer a totally different sports and entertainment package.

Larger venues such as the Theatre Royal and Circus in nearby Stratford concentrate more on community based theatre and performance types, which is far away from our intended programme. The Hackney empire has not been completed, having closed some time ago for a huge refit and refurbishment, and at the time of writing had not widely publicised either their reopening date or their proposed new programme. Their previous programme was varied and interesting, but not as wide as we intend for The Balineum. However we would view them as the most likely rival nearby.

The West End of London speaks for itself, and will always take up the majority of casual theatre-goers and tourists; and we must take into account such alternatives as cinema, video rental etc. which people have been educated to consider before theatre in later times.

However, no other venue offers similar back up facilities in terms of bars restaurants and cafes, and we firmly believe that with a varied and popular programme we can quickly establish ourselves as a principal choice for live entertainment.

• Large state of the art venue for hire to outside producers
• Varied theatre programme including visiting companies performing musicals, plays, ballet, opera, contemporary and modern dance,
• Musical concerts including visiting orchestras
• Concerts by rising performers in popular music
• Concerts of alternative popular musics: R 'n' B, Garage, Jazz etc.
• Stand up comedy, variety and speciality, circus based shows

• Good programme of community events including nostalgia shows for the oap market,
• A cooperative programme with local venues to promote local arts
• A cultural arts programme devised with other venues to explore and promote arts from culture prevalent in the area.

The following we consider to be our keys to success:

• Initial funding and continued commercial sponsorship for the in house productions.
• Good pick-up by outside production companies to hire the venue.
• Strong high profile campaign to increase public awareness that the venue is being built and then that it is there.
• Continued campaign to publicize shows and events.
• Strong and varied programme of shows and events that will not just serve a "community" brief, but will be what people ACTUALLY WANT TO SEE AND WILL PAY REAL MONEY TO DO SO.

2.6 Critical Issues

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Two main critical issues which have knock on effects are foremost. The first is one inherent in any new venue and that is awareness and willingness. We must make potential audiences aware that the venue will be there, then that it is, and we must devise methods to convince them that they should attend.

The second is a demographic one based on local community makeup. Residents in the local area are from many diverse cultures, many of whom are not culturally predisposed to think of theatre as an option for entertainment. One of the hardest tasks we will face is to draw those people into the venue. The solution so far has evidently NOT been to throw up a program of ethnically based shows, as the dire plight of other centres who have followed this path prove. This is a very narrow an patronizing train of thought. By attracting the younger generations, we believe that slowly the older generations will open up to the potential, and if they visit and enjoy their experience, they will be inclined to try new things and become used to thinking of the venue as their own.

In each case the only real solution is time and patience. Previous projects by other developers have hit trouble because their predictions were of almost instantaneous and miraculous success, where doors opened and audiences flooded in like the first day of the Harrods' sale. This is just not feasible or sensible and we must be prepared that it will take more than one or two years to properly establish the venue and draw people in.

Though or long term goal is for complete independence without the need for outside public funding, we believe that it will take us at least five years to establish the venue to the point that that goal is achieved.