Booze ban for Hamilton Sevens
Hamilton: Boot parties and “side loading” are out for the Hamilton Sevens but craft beer and special cocktails are in.
City councillors yesterday unanimously agreed to a 24-hour liquor ban for streets around FMG Stadium Waikato during the event.
The aim is to stop people from ducking out of the stadium to down cheaper booze stashed in their car or bought from a nearby liquor shop.
Inside the stadium, there will be plenty of variety on the drinks menu, according to Dallas Fisher, joint Sevens promoter and 37 South managing director.
The menu will include a range of about eight beers, including craft beers and, when the low-alcohol options switch in, a pineapple martini will be one of the specially mixed cocktails.
All cocktails will have to go into a plastic cup, Fisher said, but it’ll be a nice one and there will be a garnish.
Fans will be treated as adults, he said, and the four-drink-at-a-time purchase limit will apply.
“At some point during the day, we will move to a low-strength alcohol product mix.
“Come to the event, have a drink and all the rest of it, but we will have no tolerance for people who are preloaded.”
That’s why he’s totally supporting the temporary liquor ban around the outside of the stadium.
Police said in a letter to Hamilton City Council that they want a party atmosphere but not the “high intoxication levels and arrest rates seen at previous Wellington Sevens tournaments”.
“Based on information from Wellington Sevens, we consider it a high probability that many ticket holders will want to access cheaper alcohol during the day and will either bring alcohol in their cars for consumption (boot parties) or purchase it from local liquor stores to consume outside the stadium,” a letter from Detective Inspector Hywel Jones said.
That could undo an alcohol management plan for Hamilton’s first go at hosting the New Zealand leg of the World Sevens Series.
So the police force asked council to extend an existing ban through daylight hours for the weekend of February 3-4.
“The area proposed for the extension encompasses the FMG Stadium’s surrounding streets, where it is deemed that ticket holders will likely park their vehicles,” Jones wrote.
“The ban will provide a deterrent for ticket holders to ‘preload’ or leave the stadium to ‘side load’.”
The extension is for just two days, he wrote, so it shouldn’t greatly inconvenience people in the area.
Council needs to make it clear that alcohol isn’t banned inside the stadium, Councillor Angela O’Leary said yesterday. Cr James Casson checked Hamilton wouldn’t be “going the Wellington way” and breath-testing people as they entered the stadium.
The temporary alcohol ban idea had support from NZ Rugby and the Sevens event promoters, a council report said. Councillors voted unanimously - and without debate - to approve the temporary alcohol ban.
Cr Geoff Taylor was absent.
In October, organisers announced that Hamilton Sevens tickets had sold out and the stadium’s 23,600 seats would be at capacity.
More than 40 per cent of ticket sales were to people from outside Hamilton.
The ban boundary will temporarily tack an extra bit on to the 24 hour central city alcohol ban.
It will extend the boundary north along Waikato River on to Victoria Street, Maeroa Road, Norton Road, Hall Street, Lake Road and Tainui Street until it connects back with the existing ban area.
The Sevens moved to Hamilton after 18 years in Wellington. The first Wellington years boomed, but the last few saw dwindling crowd numbers and financial losses.
Stricter controls around alcohol in later years - due to disorder, tougher liquor laws, and an increasing family focus - were blamed by some for putting a dampener on the party atmosphere.
In 2014, 20 arrests were made, 270 Sevens goers were evicted and Westpac Stadium was served with 156 breaches of the liquor law.
Ticketholders who appeared drunk were breath-tested on arrival in 2016 - a move picked up by the NRL Auckland Nines. Official attendance numbers in 2014 came in around 58,000, but that was down to 20,000 in 2017.
By that stage, all but one bar at the stadium was selling light beer, Stuff reported.