Doors closed for gold medal game

Photo: CTV

All across the country Canadians will be going to bed early or staying up late, depending on the individual. But they will all share the common goal of cheering on Canada’s Olympic Men’s hockey team as they go for gold against Sweden.

The puck drops at 4 a.m. PST Sunday morning and some provinces will be allowing local establishments to serve alcohol, such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Unfortunately, BC’s Attorney General Suzanne Anton has decided that could be problematic and will allow establishments to open their doors for the game, but no one will be allowed to serve alcohol.

That is causing a commotion across the province, especially here in Kelowna, where many bars and pubs have told Castanet they will not be opening their doors, despite numerous calls from customers.

“Why would I stay open to sell coffee?” asked Gary Bakelmun manager at Rusty’s steakhouse.

“I can’t sell liquor, I’m never going to make any kind of money selling coffee. All I’m going to have is people pissed off that I can’t sell them beer.”

He says they’ve field dozens of calls over the past 48 hours from patrons looking for a place to watch the game.

“And the fact that the Alberta government is far more generous than ours is not helping the matter. I just think its ridiculous. We’re supposedly a free society but we can’t govern ourselves to serve liquor?”

Employees at places like Boomers Bar and Grill, Dakota’s Sports Bar and Baxter’s Bar & Grill are saying the same things -- there is no sense opening their doors if they cannot serve alcohol.

“From what I know, it probably costs more to bring in a staff member to work the bar to serve water and tea and coffee and work the kitchen. And at 4 a.m. you can’t really know if anyone is going to come in or not,” says Kendra Fry from Baxter’s.

She says they have also received many calls and queries from customer’s searching for a place to watch the game.

Boston Pizza has also said their doors will be closed, and Tonics Pub & Grill was undecided by the middle of Saturday afternoon, with staff saying they will make a decision later tonight and post it to their Facebook page.

Not everyone is closed:

• The 97 Street Social House will be open for the game and 103.9 Juice FM will also be there. "They will be open for the game at 4 a.m., we'll be there too, live, screaming Go Canada Go!", says Program Director Troy Scott.
• Woody's Pub in Winfield will open at 3:3.0 am.

If any local pubs will be opening their doors for the game, email us at [email protected]