Hockey Fans Sue Arena Over Beer Prices

A handful of hockey fans, in Boise Idaho, are suing a Boise arena on Tuesday,saying they were conned into thinking a beer, worth $7, contained more brew than a beer worth $4.

According to ESPN, CenturyLink Arena, home of the Idaho Steelheads hockey team, defrauded customers, by charging and extra $3 more for a tall, narrow cup, advertised as a “large”, that holds the same amount of beer as the shorter, wider cup version, described as a “small”. When arena officials were questioned about the lawsuit, their spokesman, Mike Campbell, could not comment because he had not seen the lawsuit as of yet.

Four fans filed the suit, on Tuesday, in Boise’s 4th District Court against Block 22 LLC, which does business as CenturyLink Arena. Brady Peck, Michele Bonds, and William and Brittany Graham are seeking to attain $10,000 in damages, as reported by ABC News.

From what the details in the lawsuit state, Peck has attended at least 30 events over the past three years at the arena, including a hockey game on March 5th. He has purchased beer each attendance. The other three plaintiffs say they’ve attended sporting events at the venue for the past five years, and bought at least one large $7 beer for each event.

Wyatt Johnson, the attorney representing the hockey fans, had this statement about the beers purchased:

While different shapes, both cup sizes hold substantially the same amount of liquid and are not large versus small in actual capacity. Defendants knowingly sold each of their beers in a similar manner at each event held at the arena where beer was sold for at least the last five years.

The lawsuit was presented two days after Gwen Gibbs, another hockey fan, posted a video on Youtube, about the beers, purchased at CenturyLink Arena, on March 8th. The video shows her boyfriend, Heath Forsey, pour a large cup of beer into an empty small cup. In both cups, the beer reaches to the rim.

Because of the video, CenturyLink officials announced, a short time later, that the company would purchase new cups for the large beers. The new large cups will now be 24 ounces, instead of the previous 20 ounces, for a bigger difference. Even the president of the Idaho Steelbacks hockey team and CenturyLink Area, Eric Trapp, wrote on the team’s Facebook page that the company had ordered 16-ounce and 20-ounce cups and never intended to mislead customers. Gwen was amazed, at such a fast response, by stating:

It’s amazing what can be done with one little video and the power of social media.

As of now, the has not been dropped. At least CenturyLink Arena won’t have to worry about any beer cup size issues, if they go through with their statement.

[Image via Bing]