Hockey fans who converged on CN Centre to take in the Stanley Cup finals and enjoyed a beer or two while cheering on their team suddenly found themselves without suds on Monday when sales were stopped in response to an edict from the liquor control and licencing branch.
It turned out that the beer garden in place for the first five games contravened the branch's policy prohibiting stadiums, as well as concert halls and convention centres, from serving booze when acting as venues for televised events, even if they hold liquor primary licences.
It meant the beer garden was closed for games six and seven but CN Centre manager Andy Beesley was not raising any protest with liquor inspectors and called it a "zero out of 10 issue."
"I'm downplaying it just because if it was a bigger issue we would be saying 'oh, yeah it's a problem and blah, blah, blah,' but in this case it's the Stanley Cup finals and people just want to watch and be together and whether you're drinking Pepsi or Coke or a glass or water or a glass of beer, really it's irrelevant," Beesley said Wednesday morning.
"And if people want to, there are plenty of pubs and restaurants that have that type of service and all we're is trying to do is offer a different kind of experience for people who don't necessarily want to watch in a pub or a bar but they do want to watch with other people."
Rogers Arena in Vancouver was granted an exemption so fans could enjoy a beer or two when they gather there to watch the away games on the score clock's big screen.
But a spokesperson for the branch said the the exemption was applied for well in advance and the serving times and the maximum per patron were reduced and security requirements remained the same as at the home games.
At CN Centre, between 500 and 600 people have shown up for most games and the number rose to about 1,000 for a Saturday night contest.
