Bill Clinton and the Changing World

(Bill Clinton speaking in Toronto -August 29, 2009 - at The CNE - photo by Mark Blinch)

Today is Sunday. Church Preachers/Pastors all over Canada and the USA will be preparing their last minute touch ups to their speeches/sermons for this mornings Church Service. Most of the speeches will be around 30 minutes in length… some are shorter – some maybe longer. Any where from 12 minutes flat to a well anointed 45 minute oration.

A host of men and women will make their spare change this day by using words.

Yesterday Toronto was blessed by a well healed, slick talking dude from south of the border. Former President Bill Clinton gave a speech at the BMO field at the Toronto BMO Field – normally used for big professional soccer teams.

BMO has 25,000 seats. Yesterday they filled 12,000 to hear the man. And in order to get this many they dropped the price of the tickets to a mere $5.00. That was a drop from $50 a seat to here Dear Bill.

This past week when I first heard that they were dropping the price of the tickets to hear Dear Bill… I smirked. Even Bill is having a rough time of it. He is losing his appeal too.

I smirked because the site of a one quarter full BMO field could be embarrassing to say the least. Bill came in from Boston on a special flight to address the lowly, poor people that attend a fun exhibition – The CNE! And no one wanted to hear him.

As of yesterday before Bill arrived… they were hawking the tickets at the gate at $5 on top of the $15 that is paid at the gate to get in.

Please Note:
Prior to the Clinton Speech of August 29, 2009 – Adrian Morrow reported…
“Advance tickets are available through Ticketmaster for between $20 to $40. At the event, they will cost between $5 to $25, plus $15 for admission to the CNE - meaning that the overall price of seeing the ex-president remains unchanged.

The most expensive tickets, priced at $50, are sold out. Ticket sales have been much lower than originally anticipated. When Clinton's speech was announced, the CNE expected to make 25,000 seats available. So far, about 7,000 have been sold. Organizers also scaled back the number of tickets available to just 10,000.”

BUT you see… Bill gets a lot of money for his 30 minutes of talking. He isn’t cheap when he talks.
In 2005 Bill made lots of money…
Robert Yoon states(in CNN’s article entitled “Bill Clinton’s isn’t cheap”)
“Clinton's speaking tour in 2005 included 43 speeches in 14 countries. He began in February and averaged about four speeches a month, usually charging about $150,000 per event. On occasion, the price was much steeper.

On October 18, 2005, for example, he addressed about 8,500 business executives at a "Power Within" motivational speaking conference in Toronto, Ontario, for a price of $350,000.

The next day he addressed a similar group at a "Power Within" conference in Calgary, Alberta, for $300,000.

When factoring in his $125,000 fee for remarks to a different business group delivered via video-conference before the Toronto event, the former president's total two-day haul was $775,000.”

DID YOU GET THAT? Bill made $350,000 in Toronto’s October 18, 2005 speech!!!!

In yesterday’s BMO speech the CNE must have made around $100,000 on ticket sales – if that. When you drop the price to $5 bucks and then only sell half the seats – it aint good!

I bet the CNE’s bottom line will be affected by the Bill Clinton speech. The person that is on the planning committee is probably making up excuses now of why it failed.

In the past Dear Bill received a whack of money to talk…
The Middle East Analysis Blog states…
“The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has paid $500,000 to Bill Clinton for a single lecture he delivered in Kuwait City on Sunday on his assessment of Barack Obama's foreign and economic policies. It was delivered the day after the Kuwaiti stock market resumed trading after it was suspended by order of a Kuwaiti court on Thursday to avoid a total collapse.”

Now how about the Speeches being given in the next three hours from this posting?

This is the last Sunday of August – and a whack of people are a way from church still. Attendance may not be that high today. For that last 8 weeks the annual holiday exodus has been taking place steadily. The Trailer Park People and the Cottage People have slipped away into the wild areas of our country. With them went their offerings that normally come to the church offering plates.

The News Headlines today should read… “Local Minister giving speech at 10:30 AM Sunday AM” There is no charge – seats are free… and only the ones that want to give something in the offering plate will be required to do so. Again Seats are FREE! People should rush into these events/happenings. Right?!

You and I both know that it isn’t going to happen. Not much will affect the changing attitudes of the populace. They have changed big time… BIG, BIG TIME!

No longer is the Preacher the best educated in the community. No longer is he the almost celebrity status with a special something about him… He is pretty normal most people have found out. Most importantly his 30 minutes speeches are not worth $140,000 each. I won’t even guess what they will pay locally for his talk today. Not much is my guess.

Society is changing rapidly. People on the outside have so many more interesting things to do on Sunday AM. – and at the CNE! Sadly what is offered is not attracting them. This summer I have sat through and in a lot of empty churches.

I have preached in a few as well… and many, many seats were empty… very empty. And Empty Seats don’t pay – or support.

I have thought of a gimmick or two… you know dress up like Elvis and shake my booties… to get a crowd. The problem is that I would have to be Gene Simmons of KISS next week. Then the third week I could be Bill Clinton with a rubber face on….

I somehow don’t think it would work.

The world has really changed… oh boy.

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/

Source:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/14/bill.clinton.speeches/index.html
http://middle-east-analysis.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-much-does-bill-clinton-speech-cost.html
http://www.thestar.com/theex/article/687885