How much does it cost to rent a studio for a day? I feel like moving to Toronto was pennywise and pound-foolish for Split Second, especially if they could have stayed in Los Angeles and given Tom Kennedy something to do.
The Canadian dollar was so low compared to the U.S. dollar at the time. Historical data for 1986 shows a peak in February where US$1=CA$1.44. Hatos-Hall were getting, on average, a 40% savings on production costs simply by moving things to Canada. They were smart, too:
Split Second was produced out of the CHCH facilities in Hamilton, which is an hour's drive from downtown Toronto. CHCH was not affiliated with any of the major broadcast systems in Canada (CTV, CBC, Global) at the time, so there was probably some savings there as well. Most games of that era that did tape in Toronto proper either taped at the Global facility in Don Mills or at CFTO in Scarborough.
