Ontario introduces confusing law allowing bars to open early for Women's World Cup

There’s something special about sitting and watching the World Cup with your pals, even if it’s a ridiculous time of the day.

Canadian soccer fans with their favourite teams often playing in other countries know this phenomenon all too well and are about to rediscover it with the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup starting in Australia and New Zealand just nine days from now.

Today, Ontario introduced a new temporary law that allows restaurants and bars to open up as early as 7 am with liquor service from July 20 through August 20th, should they be so inclined, with last call remaining at 2 am.

Announced by the Registrar of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), any establishment in the province is eligible to open its liquor service early, provided the municipality doesn’t object.

“The extension of hours for this period is intended to allow service that overlaps with some of the events of the FIFA Women’s World Cup which, because of the time difference involved, will be televised in Ontario early in the morning,” the AGCO said in a release.

It’s not an uncommon move at all for a major tournament: a similar law was in place for last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar allowing bars to be open at 7 am, as well as for the 2014 and 2018 Olympics in Sochi, Russia (at 6 am) and Pyeongchang, South Korea (at 7 am).

While many people might opt to watch the tournament at home in their pyjamas and a jersey, there’s bound to be a contingent of the public ready and willing to go watch the match out in public.

Except, it seems, like nobody really checked out Canada’s schedule — or the tournament as a whole.

Canada’s current group stage games are timed for 6 am, 8 am, and 10:30 pm.

One of these matches — their final group stage match on July 31 against co-hosts Australia — would only allow for fans to drink during the second half of the game, assuming it kicked off on time, while their opening match against Nigeria is already within normal operating hours.

Assuming two hours from kickoff to conclusion, just 12 of the 48 group stage games will actually be able to be watched by fans having a drink in a bar with alcohol service available the whole time.

But while Canada is guaranteed just three games, the law seems to have even a stranger impact once the tournament carries into the knockout rounds whether the Canadians are playing or not.

Twelve of the 16 knockout round matches fall at least partially outside of the 2 am to 7 am window, with just a single one of the knockout matches actually starting at 7 am.

The final itself is at 6 am ET, while each of the semifinals is at a kickoff time of 4 am and 6 am ET.

In total, here’s the kickoff breakdown time for the tournament:

The new law actually only affects eight games in full, while an additional 16 a fan could reasonably watch at least part of the second half of with a beer in their hand. But in actuality, it’s hard to imagine too many places wanting to only have alcohol service available for half of a soccer match, especially that early in the day.

There doesn’t seem to be much reason behind it at all, rather than actually adjusting the law based on the time when many of the games are being played.

While there’s always room for amendments to this temporary law that seems geared to allow soccer fans to have a good time watching the beautiful game, it seems like whoever put this one in place with a 7 am alcohol start time didn’t really seem to have much clear reason behind it.

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