Surely though, almost every venue I know of is either given a budget by the brewery to put on a gig (it benefits them as they then sell more beer) or if the landlord pays (as part of his business plan) surely that's written off as an expense and/or tax deductible.
Interestingly though, around here, with reduced capacity in venues, the business plan has been to put the price of food and drink up, not down.