World Cup ruling paves the way for late-night extensions for sporting events

Licensees are finding it easier to win late night extensions for sporting events following the recent ruling on opening for the World Cup.

Since the High Court ruled the World Cup was a special occasion, magistrates appear more willing to grant extensions for other sporting events.

In Plymouth, magistrates have granted Kularoos Sports Bar an extension to open until 4am on June 9 to allow customers to watch the British boxer Lennox Lewis (pictured)​ take on Mike Tyson.

Licensee Iain Woodhead said: "We're a 600-capacity sports bar and we show every major sporting event. On the back of that we thought we'd have a go for the licence."

Although magistrates originally did not want to grant the licence, based on case law from a similar fight in the late 1970s, they relented because Kularoos is a dedicated sports bar.

"There's a massive demand for it - I could fill the bar 10 times over," Mr Woodhead said. "It's the fight of the century and 200 million people are expected to watch it worldwide. We're a responsible bar and we asked the magistrates to give our customers the chance to prove they can be sensible and have a drink during the fight."

thePublican.com's legal expert Richard Williams said magistrates were being more lenient in granting licences because of the decision on World Cup opening.

"It's becoming fairly widespread. Prior to the World Cup ruling a sporting event would not have been considered a special occasion, but magistrates have been swayed by the High Court decision," he said.

"Of course, plenty of licensees will still find their local magistrates do not grant extensions but the World Cup decision overall has been fairly wide-reaching."