The Insiders
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Jul
23
Did The Killers Kill the Liquor at Thunderbird Arena?
Posted by: Neal Yonson | July 23, 2009 | 10 Comments
The new Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre is currently applying for an amendment to their liquor-primary licence. The matter will be coming before Metro Vancouver’s Electoral Area committee for approval this Friday and there seems to be a significant hurdle in the way: as a result of past violations, the RCMP does not support it.
- Read the letter from the RCMP about problems Athletics has been having controlling alcohol and drugs at concerts held in the arena.
- This letter was posted yesterday on the the @ubcinsiders Twitter feed. For up-to-date news, follow us!
- The full agenda package can be found here, and contains a wealth of documents about the application, though hopefully I will be able to save you the trouble of reading through it all.
Thunderbird Arena currently has a liquor-primary licence which covers the seating area in Father Bauer arena as well as the location of the former Thunderbar. When the new facility was erected around Father Bauer arena, the new areas were not covered under the existing liquor licence. As a result, UBC Athletics is applying for an amendment to the existing liquor-primary licence to cover the seating area and floor of the new arena. This application is not only in UBC’s interests, VANOC wants it too. It’s in the venue agreement, and so UBC does as VANOC wants.
As required by Metro Vancouver, some public meetings were held to discuss the plans and get feedback. Predictably, and in this case fortunately, the UNA objected to some of the items in the application. Because the process of obtaining an amendment to a liquor licence is tedious, Athletics threw in everything they think they might want at some time in the future, even if they don’t need or want it at present, to leave themselves more flexibility. This resulted in some absurdities, such as proposed serving hours stretching all the way from 9 am until 2 am, and the licencing of an outdoor patio area that they currently don’t have any use for.
The 9 am start is interesting to me; I don’t think there was any particular reason for it other than that they were asking for everything they could. By doing so, UBC is now on the record as not objecting to morning drinking, starting as early as 9. On the application form the reason put forth for the early start time was so that people can drink mimosas – maybe it should have listed Beerios instead.
Regardless, things were going relatively smoothly until the RCMP dropped a bombshell. In a four-page letter (linked above; highly recommended reading), S/Sgt Kevin Kenna outlines some serious violations that have occurred at past events in the arena and that they do not feel Athletics is capable of living up to their responsibilities. What happened to prompt this strong objection?
“In order to promote events in the interim while the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch is considering the application, UBC has been granted a Temporary Change to its existing licence in order to allow a beer garden during certain events at the arenas. Management of the Temporary Change licence has been problematic and the Licensing Branch has had to rescind its approval after complaints about beer garden use at a recent concert.” – David Boote, planner with Metro Vancouver
So Athletics got a Temporary Change, but that was rescinded due to poor management. At the next concert, they instead got a Special Occasion Licence (SOL). How did that work out?
“At a recent event where a Special Occasion License was obtained for a beer garden, there was such blatant abuse of liquor service (operating two beer gardens, poor security, over service) that all future events were not allowed to apply for a Special Occasion License.” – S/Sgt Kenna, RCMP
Strike two. Without the Temporary Change licence and no chance at an SOL, the next event had no alcohol service. Problem solved, right?
“Despite the fact that the next concert was [non-alcoholic], both drugs and alcohol did make their way into the event. The police encountered minors in possession and consuming both alcohol and narcotics. As well, there were many inebriated persons either on the main floor or in the stands or back stage. Numerous patrons were observed smoking marijuana in the “mosh pit” as well as parts of the stands. During this event a male was “head butted” and required an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Before this event even started, there was a lot of “pre-drinking” outside the Centre and in the nearby Thunderbird Parkade.” – S/Sgt Kenna, RCMP
Well, shit. There’s no way these people should get a liquor licence. Ultimately though, the RCMP concludes they are willing to work with UBC to resolve the outstanding issues, but until it is all resolved, the RCMP does not support any liquor licence amendments. Brian Sullivan penned a response acknowledging past problems and promising to do better, but also trying to claim that they have an “established record of success” running licenced events. Can you imagine the fallout if such serious violations occurred repeatedly at student-organized events? I can’t imagine saying “my bad” and promising to do better in the future would get you anywhere at all with the RCMP and the University. Someone please teach me how UBC gets away with this stuff.
All of this makes me worried. With liquor issues, one bad apple spoils the whole bushel. The RCMP would like to enforce every group the same way so they are not seen as playing favorites, though this doesn’t happen in practice. While this approach is both fair and unfair at the same time, the result is that a small subset of troublemakers has the potential to cause real problems to the majority of groups that do follow the rules surrounding liquor regulations. Of course Athletics has promised to clean up their act, but why didn’t that happen when any of the major infractions occurred in the first place? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Not only that, these are only the issues only from Thunderbird arena. Athletics also gets SOLs for Varsity games and does not follow the rules in getting those either! Their track record is established and it’s dismal. Students get a bad rep for being irresponsible with alcohol but the worst violations are arising elsewhere.
The other way I see this liquor-primary licence as a problem is that currently the RCMP puts a cap on SOLs, based on how many people are supposedly attending these events in a given night. Once that cap is hit, they stop giving out SOLs for that day. For example, the RCMP will not approve SOLs for August 14th due to the Warped Tour occurring at Thunderbird Stadium even though the Warped Tour will not have any liquor service. Any night with a large event at the arena will lower the capacity for student-run events. I am also going to assume that the revenue from these concerts is going into Athletics’s bottom line but that very little of it ends up going back into student programs. I would love to see evidence which suggests I’m wrong about this, but I don’t think I will ever see that. The university is catering primarily to non-students, having negative impacts on student-run events; this is the War on Fun in a nutshell.
Finally, this warms my heart:
It is my belief that the UBC Athletics Department is moving too fast with their planned events at Thunderbird Centre, especially music concerts; and that profit is the main objective rather than ensuring that community interests are taken into consideration and looked after now and in the future. – S/Sgt Kenna, RCMP
HALLELUJAH!!!
Sing it, brother! This is the gosp
el I have been preaching far and wide. I don’t want to start off on an even longer rant, but the ancillary model for UBC Athletics is broken. Too much of the department’s attention is focused on increasing revenues without considering whether it is actually serving the UBC community effectively. There is not nearly enough accountability to those ultimately paying the bills and shouldering the impacts. I am immensely pleased to see that others see it the same way as well and I hope UBC is paying attention.
Comments
10 Comments so far
Is there still time for a late delegation to the Metro committee? It's in Burnaby, but may be a good idea.
Is there still time for a late delegation to the Metro committee? It's in Burnaby, but may be a good idea.
Well done Neal, this is exciting new information for those fighting the War on Fun. Its strange, but Kenna appears to be the fair fighter in this case, and that is heartening for those of us who have been pinning blame on the detachment for the past few years.
In terms of large events reducing the number (to zero in some cases) on nights with concerts or big events doesn't bother me, as I recognize that our small detachment is stretched for officers on the best of days, and its expensive to bring in auxiliary forces from Richmond. So this does not concern the Kommander so much.
What does concern the Kommander is the fact that Athletics has, and continues to be, the largest group on campus requisitioning SOLs and have been violating them all the time. For those of us fighting the uphill battle against an administration hellbent on making campus a family-oriented community, it is unfair that such a group is being given so many opportunities to undermine our efforts to prove that we are responsible.
Not only that, but Athletics isn't even a student group! While some of its student groups put on many of the events, TBird Arena and many events licensed in WarMem are done through the department, and they are screwing over responsible student groups.
The Kommander, and many other experienced student event planners would be more than happy to show UBC Athletics how to run events that 1) don't violate provincial liquor laws, and 2) turn a profit without neglecting community safety concerns. Just sayin.
-KK
Well done Neal, this is exciting new information for those fighting the War on Fun. Its strange, but Kenna appears to be the fair fighter in this case, and that is heartening for those of us who have been pinning blame on the detachment for the past few years.
In terms of large events reducing the number (to zero in some cases) on nights with concerts or big events doesn't bother me, as I recognize that our small detachment is stretched for officers on the best of days, and its expensive to bring in auxiliary forces from Richmond. So this does not concern the Kommander so much.
What does concern the Kommander is the fact that Athletics has, and continues to be, the largest group on campus requisitioning SOLs and have been violating them all the time. For those of us fighting the uphill battle against an administration hellbent on making campus a family-oriented community, it is unfair that such a group is being given so many opportunities to undermine our efforts to prove that we are responsible.
Not only that, but Athletics isn't even a student group! While some of its student groups put on many of the events, TBird Arena and many events licensed in WarMem are done through the department, and they are screwing over responsible student groups.
The Kommander, and many other experienced student event planners would be more than happy to show UBC Athletics how to run events that 1) don't violate provincial liquor laws, and 2) turn a profit without neglecting community safety concerns. Just sayin.
-KK
The RCMP and Athletics have an agreement that for large concerts, UBC will be footing the bill for auxillary officers. As I'm aware, that means these extra units /should not infringe/ on RCMP duties of the day-to-day officers (which includes student beer gardens).
Of course, that's the theory at least. Unsure how it plays out in practice.
The RCMP and Athletics have an agreement that for large concerts, UBC will be footing the bill for auxillary officers. As I'm aware, that means these extra units /should not infringe/ on RCMP duties of the day-to-day officers (which includes student beer gardens).
Of course, that's the theory at least. Unsure how it plays out in practice.
I should probably clarify that I'm not opposed to having a liquor licence at the arena in theory. Being able to have a beer while watching a game or a concert is a good idea. But that is based on the assumption that this will be administered responsibly and without incident. That's the opposite of what's happening here. There are too many negative impacts due to the irresponsibility of the university.
Kommander, I also recognize that the RCMP is a small detachment and that large events pose legitimate problems with staffing. I don't begrudge them for wanting to cap SOLs. However, when the cap is reached because of concerts at the arena I have to ask: who are the people putting on these events, and who are they aimed at? They are put on by concert promoters and aimed at an audience that's primarily not from UBC. Why is it appropriate for events like this to tie up all of the RCMP's resources?
Of course, the obvious solution is as Alex said, to pay for all the necessary auxiliary officers. But in terms of how it ends up happening in practice, there are indications already about that. As I mentioned, no more SOLs on August 14, due to a concert at an Athletics venue.
I should probably clarify that I'm not opposed to having a liquor licence at the arena in theory. Being able to have a beer while watching a game or a concert is a good idea. But that is based on the assumption that this will be administered responsibly and without incident. That's the opposite of what's happening here. There are too many negative impacts due to the irresponsibility of the university.
Kommander, I also recognize that the RCMP is a small detachment and that large events pose legitimate problems with staffing. I don't begrudge them for wanting to cap SOLs. However, when the cap is reached because of concerts at the arena I have to ask: who are the people putting on these events, and who are they aimed at? They are put on by concert promoters and aimed at an audience that's primarily not from UBC. Why is it appropriate for events like this to tie up all of the RCMP's resources?
Of course, the obvious solution is as Alex said, to pay for all the necessary auxiliary officers. But in terms of how it ends up happening in practice, there are indications already about that. As I mentioned, no more SOLs on August 14, due to a concert at an Athletics venue.
Just dropping in to say hello from France! Bonjour mes chers! when's the new blog starting?
(whoa, the keyboards here are vraiment bizarre)
Just dropping in to say hello from France! Bonjour mes chers! when's the new blog starting?
(whoa, the keyboards here are vraiment bizarre)