2 Saskatchewan bars apply to open early for World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is being held in Russia this year, with games nine hours ahead of Saskatchewan’s time zone.

At Sports on Tap in Saskatoon, early openings are common for horse racing and Olympic hockey but for World Cup, it comes on a match-by-match basis.

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“The World Cup, each country has their own following. Brazil, if they played early, there’s going to be a bigger following for that, if the U.S.A. played, then not so much,” Sports On Tap manager Mike Kirkham said.

According to the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA), there hasn’t been much interest in extending hours to serve alcohol for the early start times.

In fact, only two bars in the entire province — one in Regina and one in Saskatoon — applied to open and serve early.

“These are gold medal hockey games to a lot of us,” Scott Cavanagh, Boston Pizza Saskatoon regional manager, said.

“We find there’s a lot of people that feel the same way we do about soccer and we just like to provide a place for everyone to come together.”

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Boston Pizza’s original request was to begin serving at 6 a.m. CT but SLGA tentatively agreed to 8 a.m.

The establishment has been showing the World Cup over the years, and are showing every game but one throughout the tournament.

“Soccer fans are passionate, and this is a religion,” Cavanagh said.

“It was a no-brainer to put it on.”

World Cup runs until July 15, and some bar owners plan to re-evaluate applying to extend service hours deeper into the tournament.