A dispute over beer pour sizes has CenturyLink Arena and the Idaho Steelheads (ECHL) potentially in court after fans discovered the arena was serving the same amount of beer in what was advertised as two different sizes.
The downtown Boise arena charges $4 for a “small” beer and $7 for a “large” beer: the small beer is 16 ounces and served in a short cup, while the large beer is 20 ounces and served in a tall, narrow cup. But apparently the tall cup doesn’t actually hold 20 ounces, and the pours usually end up being the same, as illustrated in this video:
This prompted a lawsuit from disgruntled fans, who are seeking to create a class-action lawsuit and damages of $10,000. From the Idaho Statesman:
The lawsuit, filed in Boise’s 4th District Court on Tuesday, contends that Block 22 LLC, which does business as CenturyLink Arena, defrauded customers by fooling them into thinking that a tall, narrow cup of beer sold for $7 was substantially bigger than a shorter, wider cup sold for $4.
Mike Campbell with Block 22 said he hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit and so couldn’t comment.
Brady Peck, Michele Bonds and William and Brittany Graham are asking for damages exceeding $10,000.
The arena management immediately issued a mea culpa and promised to make changes in beer pour sizes, upping the large to 24 ounces.
“It was recently brought to our attention that the amount of beer that fits in our large (20-oz) cups also fits in our regular (16-oz) cups. The differentiation in the size of the two cups is too small. To correct that problem, we’re purchasing new cups for the large beers that will hold 24 ounces, instead of 20, for the remainder of this season to provide better value to our fans. As we do every offseason, we’ll evaluate our entire concessions menu for next season over the summer,” wrote Eric Trapp, the president of the Idaho Steelheads and CenturyLink Arena, on the team’s Facebook page.
Now, it seems really silly for fans to be suing for more than $10,000 in damages, and it seems absurd that this should even be considered for class-action status. And proving actual fraud in a courtroom is a difficult task. So we’ll see where this lawsuit lands.
CenturyLink Arena is also home to the Idaho Stampede (D-League), which is not a party to this lawsuit.
