Licensing proposals will make Northern Ireland a more attractive host of major sporting events, says expert

A new Licensing Bill was recently introduced before the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) and was debated in the parliament earlier this week. The Bill is aimed at making it easier for event organisers to sell alcohol at regional and national outdoor sports stadia in Northern Ireland that have a permanent seating capacity of at least 8,000.

Under current legislation, restrictions are placed on the sale of alcohol at outdoor stadia in Northern Ireland and event organisers are forced to apply to the courts on a match-by-match basis for an occasional licence to sell alcohol at games. The new Bill would enable individual venues to acquire a permanent licence to sell alcohol at sporting events.

"This Bill takes a very common sense approach to closing some gaps in Northern Ireland’s licensing legal framework," licensing expert James Griffiths of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said. "The NI Executive investment in upgrading Northern Ireland’s major sport stadia recognises the fact people now want a more complete entertainment package in attending sporting events. With overwhelming support during consultation, moving away from ad-hoc licencing will provide greater certainty for our sporting bodies to maximise commercial revenues and continue their investment in grassroots sport."

In recent years the NI Executive has provided funding for the redevelopment of Ulster Rugby's home ground, Kingspan Stadium, as well as a new 40,000 capacity ground at Casement Park for Gaelic football and hurling and a revamped national football stadium at Windsor Park in Belfast. The latter two projects are still to be completed.

“As sporting authorities bid for major events we know how important it is to have the right physical infrastructure in place," Griffiths said. "However ironing out legal anachronisms will equally demonstrate that legislators will take the necessary steps to attract and facilitate these landmark occasions."

The new Licensing Bill is set to be scrutinised by the Committee for Social Development at the NIA in the next stage of its passage through the parliament.

Alliance Party politician and member of the NIA Judith Cochrane who has sponsored the Licensing Bill said there is "no doubt" that the current alcohol licensing regime for outdoor stadia in Northern Ireland places "a time-consuming and a huge administrative burden" on the country's regional and national stadia.

"To obtain an occasional licence, an existing licensee, which is usually a catering company, must apply to the courts for every single match, with decisions granted often very close to the time of the event," Cochrane said in the debate before the NIA on Monday. "Under that occasional licence, young people, even when there is a children's certificate in place, must be away from the licensed areas of the premises by 9.00 pm, which is often earlier than the end of a sporting event. If any of you were at Kingspan a number of weeks ago in the wind, rain and hail, you would know that it is a very interesting conversation to have with parents to tell them that their children must stand outside whilst those parents can go inside to a bit of shelter, due to the demarcation of the licensed parts."

"The Bill, therefore, would allow the stadia to apply for a full licence, and it would also relax the restrictions on the presence of young people in the licensed areas, putting our outdoor stadia on the same operational footing as an indoor arena in Belfast, meaning that they could deliver family entertainment in a controlled environment," she said.

"The fact that Northern Ireland can now attract major sporting events and other events is to be welcomed, and we should be doing all we can to ensure that legislation helps, not hinders, us. There is clear evidence that these major events bring with them widespread benefits to the economy," Cochrane said.