Plaza Panel Urges Ticket Surcharge

If the group that operates the Civic Arts Plaza gets its way, tickets at the performing arts center may be going up $1 or $2 starting this fall.

The Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday is set to consider a recommendation by the Civic Arts Plaza Board of Governors to add a surcharge to tickets bought at the center’s box office.

It costs the board $177,000 a year to run the box office, with most of the money going toward salaries of box office employees. But other than the $76,000 the board receives from box office rentals, it receives no money back from the operation--leaving a $101,000 annual deficit.

Thousand Oaks’ Theatres Department is paying that difference. But the city has pledged not to subsidize the performing arts center, and the surcharge, common at many other performing arts centers, would enable the center to break even.