"The great bubbly debate of New Years' 2007 has some questioning why in the 21st century the Urban County Council has to come down to the wire with an exemption to allow bars and restaurants to sell wine, champagne and spirits on a Sunday night New Year's Eve.
Most major cities, including Louisville, have long since abolished Sunday sales prohibitions, but Lexington allows Sunday alcohol sales only at restaurants and only on a limited basis. What could it do for the Lexington economy to allow bars to be open and package stores to sell alcohol every Sunday? And what will it mean when the world comes to town in less than four years for the Alltech FEI Games if these rules are still in place?
"We need to be competitive with other cities our size, especially with the 2010 Games coming up. We've got to get in the right year here, and it will be a hindrance for us if we can't," said Ann McBrayer, president of Eagle Distributing, Lexington's supplier of Anheuser-Busch products. "It's just absolutely ridiculous to think that our clientele and our money is going out of our city. It's really silly and it's put us at an economic disadvantage not to have it."
Jack Kelly, CEO of the World Games 2010 Foundation, Inc., said he's been up against similar roadblocks in the past as he has helped put together other international sporting competitions.
"It's great for us to be addressing it collectively for a multitude of events rather than isolating us as the only reason to ask for a waiver," Kelly said. "It's not unusual for this to be an issue at least going in. In most places, waivers are generally filed for events where there is a significant amount of non-local traffic that is there for the event. (If) it is an issue in place, it's generally one that gets resolved by reasonable parties."
While Urban County Council was crunched in finding a resolution for New Year's liquor sales, he hopes it serves as a cause to get a package put together before the three Sundays the FEI World Equestrian Games will be running at the Kentucky Horse Park in the autumn of 2010.
Under current law, hotels and convention centers are allowed to serve liquor and wine until 2:30 every night of the week. On Sundays, however, restaurants are limited in their liquor sales while bars are forced to keep their doors shut, a combination that could have mal-effects on the world's view of Lexington and Kentucky, Kelly said.
"As a general rule, we would prefer that the guests we have coming in from out of town not have any restrictions, just because we don't want them to leave and say, 'Hey, I was in a restaurant or bar not part of the hotel and we were having a good time and they walked in and told us we had to stop drinking,'" Kelly said. "I think that's a potential factor that might lead people to say, 'I love the area, but that one factor is different enough that we might not want to come back.'"
Not only could we be turning off repeat business, but the immediate effects can be staggering for a business, according to McBrayer. "I can tell you exactly how it would affect our businesswe would probably see a 10 to 12 percent increase (in sales if bars were open and restaurants were not limited on New Year's)."
While there would be an obvious boon for businesses on nights like New Year's or the three Sundays that the FEI Games are going on, the president of an association of independent restaurants in Louisville said many choose to stay closed on Sundays to allow employees a day off.
"I never really noticed a huge clamor to be open on Sundays, but to be competitive convention-wise and whatever, you absolutely have to be. You have to have the ability to do it," said Andrew Hutto, owner of Baxter Station Bar and Grill and head of Louisville Originals, a 58-member restaurants association in Louisville.
Louisville has allowed hotels and restaurants that have more than 50 percent of their sales from food to serve alcohol since 1981 and let the bars get in on the fun in 1999 and package stores within the last two years, according to Mark York, spokesman for the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet. Lexington began allowing hotels and restaurants to sell spirits and wine until 11 p.m. and beer until 1 a.m. in 1995.
Kelly, who grew up with New England "Blue Laws" that forced grocers and pharmacies to close by noon if open at all on Sundays, said as long as attention remains focused on how to keep this problem from happening again in 2010, it won't be difficult to deal with.
"We understand why these laws exist, because it's been the public policy to not, on a Sunday, have the same drinking rules that exist on other days. During the Games, if it's New Year's, if it's a special day where there's a special, unique audience, and a larger than normal audience, and the larger than normal audience consists of a lot of visitors, I think it is appropriate to see if those circumstances warrant a waiver for a particular time," he said.
"