Stephenville Dome users not happy with dry dressing rooms

Not everyone that uses the Stephenville Dome is happy with a recent decision to ban drinking from the locker rooms.

Last month, the people in charge of the rink came down hard at a public meeting and said effective immediately there's a zero tolerance policy in effect against drinking in dressing rooms.

This comes after more than 100 dozen beer bottles were found in a storage room at the Dome. That coupled with concerns of players driving impaired is when the group decided to enforce the ban immediately.

Not everyone was happy with that decision and the way it made users look to the public.

Wrong impression

One of the groups that doesn't agree with the decision is the Stephenville Old Timers, a group of 30 to 65-year-old men that get together twice a week to play recreational hockey.

Arch Locke speaks for the group and says that they're not a bunch of drunks, and feels like the public got the wrong impression of his group and others that use the stadium.

Locke admits that part of the culture of recreational sports is to enjoy a beer in the locker room after the game, but insists no one from his group is driving drunk.

"I can verify right now — from our user groups — there's nobody leaving our room impaired, and leaving our room to go out and get in their vehicle to drive home impaired," he said.

Culture of recreational sports

Locke said that enjoying a beer after a game is part of being in a beer league and it's common in all sports.

"We're not irresponsible drivers. But, the chair has classified the hockey player, the golfer that goes down and has a golf game and goes into the club that day and has a drink and drives — one drink, two drinks, whatever. The curler, the curler that goes to his curling game, has a game, and as you know if you lose you got to buy the winners a drink," he said.

"So, he's classified these as irresponsible."

The ban isn't a new idea in the province, many stadiums, including Corner Brook's Civic Centre, have a similar policy in place.

It's not new for Stephenville either. The ban was first put in place in January 2015, but it wasn't strictly enforced.

According to Locke, staff would turn a blind eye to the drinking as long as everything was under control, and there was no signs of the beer afterwards.

Enough is enough

Staff and users have been told that there's now a zero tolerance policy in effect that's been enforced since September.

Bob Byrnes, the chair of the Stephenville Gardens Commission which runs the Dome, said they're not taking this issue lightly anymore.

"If the RCMP have to be called in, they will be called in. You know, this is a no-brainer issue," said Byrnes.

"It's a private facility up there, if we tell you you're not allowed to drink and you want to go and push the limit then somebody will be charged."

Public support

Many people publicly applauded Byrnes and the group for the recent change, including Stephenville Mayor Tom O'Brien.

Arch Locke questions the mayor's support because of his former career as a distributor with Molson.

"In his previous work experience, he contributed to a lot of that product that went into the Stephenville Dome," Locke said.

O'Brien confirmed with CBC that he did sponsor many groups at the Stephenville Dome over his 32 years with Molson, but said he always supported the ban at the Dome, even when he was in the beer industry.

He also said that when he gave beer to groups it was up to them to be responsible with the product.

"There was an expectation that the individuals you were actually giving the product to, I mean, they follow the laws of the land or the policies of whatever facilities that they may be taken their activities to," he said.

Hanging up the skates

The whole process has left a bad taste in Arch Locke's mouth, and he's decided to retire from the Stephenville Old Timers, a group he's been with for more than twenty years.

He's not the only one. Out of the 26 players in that group, 21 have decided to return to the ice so far this fall.

When CBC spoke with some other groups, some are following suit.

Bob Byrnes isn't concerned though, he said this season has been great so far with users fully complying to the new enforcement. He said every player has a right to choose to skate or not.