Editorial: World Cup special case for revellers

The All Blacks are scheduled to play most of their matches at the Rugby World Cup in England, including the final hopefully, during the hours the bars would be closed. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Editorial

When the Auckland Council decided that all bars would have to close by 3am in the suburbs and 4am in the city centre, it was easy to agree with the police that nothing good happens with alcohol after those hours. But for a few weeks in September-October that may not be so. The All Blacks are scheduled to play most of their matches at the Rugby World Cup in England, including the final hopefully, during the hours the bars would be closed. Let them reopen on those mornings.

The district licensing committee will soon consider whether to relax its rule for the World Cup. Unless it does so, the only way that sports bars might be able to open for a match is by applying for a special licence which can be given for a special event. But simply turning on the television, says the council's licensing manager, Rob Abbott, would not make it a special event.

Bars would need to give the occasion a "theme" with fancy dress perhaps, or themed food, or stage a quiz, or provide a guest speaker at half-time. "There has to be an event actually on the premises, not over in England," Mr Abbott explains. Bars would need to close for an hour or so before reopening for the event and entry would be by ticket. The committee would require half of those attending to have a pre-arranged ticket; the police want to insist everyone has one.

They are both being too tough. This World Cup could be a continuation of the last, when New Zealand had a feast of good, wholesome national fun. It will not be quite the same this time obviously; the hosting element will be absent. But it might reawaken the spirit of 2011 and see some of the same celebrations if the All Blacks perform as well, or even better, than they did four years ago.

The prospect of getting out of bed to watch matches at 4am, let alone going to a bar to watch them, is probably not appealing to many of us right now. But we could be surprised when the festival gets under way. At least we should not foreclose the possibility by placing unduly onerous conditions on bars that might open for the matches.

The bars cannot be sure, either, whether many people will turn up to watch the games on a big screen in company with a drink. If the tickets have to carry a charge, few customers might make the commitment. If the tickets carry no charge, few of those given them might turn up. Spontaneous attendance has to be possible.

There ought to be no need for bars to go to the trouble of themes and fancy dress simply to obtain special licences for the event. Mr Abbott is wrong - sometimes the event on television is special enough and regulations should recognise that. It would be sensible to require bars to close for at least an hour before reopening for a World Cup match, but revellers in the inner city could spend that hour at bars closing as normal at 4am.

However, by law no bar is allowed to serve intoxicated people. If that law is policed in bars that screen the matches live, this World Cup could be an enjoyable, good-natured echo of the previous one. Let it happen.