Canadian Club Crunch

Heavy snow and a December transit bus strike has put a damper on concert attendance at clubs in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, leaving venue operators and promoters in limbo.

A Jan. 21 Anberlin show at Babylon reportedly drew a good crowd but venue manager Ryan Dean said that wasn’t the norm.

“You should have been here the rest of the week,” Dean told the Ottawa Citizen, adding that hip-hop duo Clipse barely drew 150 people.

Dean said the club’s average attendance dropped 20 percent to 25 percent since the strike began.

The bad weather, ticket costs plus $50 cab rides for cross-city transportation has reportedly prompted music fans to look for entertainment closer to home.

Even some local musicians have abandoned rehearsal plans because of the bus strike, the paper said.