{"id":141347,"date":"2026-02-21T23:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/141347\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:58:08","slug":"bars-seek-state-permission-to-open-early-for-team-usas-gold-medal-hockey-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/141347\/","title":{"rendered":"Bars seek state permission to open early for Team USA&#8217;s gold medal hockey game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The buzz from Team USA\u2019s run to the gold medal game had not even worn off yet, and Western New York business owners were already asking themselves a big question.<\/p>\n<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Not long after the excitement of the Team USA men&#8217;s hockey team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/article\/sports\/olympics\/winter-olympics-tage-thompson-scores-goal-leaves-team-usa-semifinal\/71-ad0edc0b-6aa8-4b3e-bec8-42e24f59a7b6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">playing for an Olympic gold medal<\/a> wore off on Friday, some business owners across Western New York started to wonder about something.<\/p>\n<p>Would they be allowed to open early \u2014 specifically, around 8 a.m. \u2014 and serve alcohol Sunday morning for anyone who wanted to gather to watch the United States take on Canada at the Winter Games?<\/p>\n<p>State law prevents bars from opening and serving alcohol before 10 a.m. on Sundays. New York State Assemblyman Patrick Burke on Saturday wrote a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Liquor Authority, hoping they could lift that restriction for at least one day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am calling this common-sense, one-day adjustment the TAGE Rule \u2014 the Team America Game-Day Exemption \u2014 because that\u2019s exactly what it is: a narrowly tailored exemption to allow fans to come together for a once-in-a-generation moment,&#8221; Burke wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses interested in opening early were told Saturday evening that they could apply for a miscellaneous permit.<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time a sporting event led to business owners asking for a one-day reprieve. When the Buffalo Bills visited London back in October of 2023 to play a &#8220;home&#8221; game, the state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/article\/life\/people\/bills-mafia\/wny-businesses-jump-through-extra-hoops-to-sell-alcohol-during-bills-london-game\/71-60831f5c-72bd-4b72-a4df-28391aa324df\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">worked with business owners on a $35 permit<\/a> that allowed businesses to sell alcohol from 8 to 10 a.m. on Sundays.<\/p>\n<p>Kickoff for that game was at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, so some businesses passed on the permit and opened at their regular time.<\/p>\n<p>Sabres star Tage Thompson and Team USA will play Canada in the gold medal game at 8:10 a.m. Sunday. The game will be shown on NBC and Channel 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The buzz from Team USA\u2019s run to the gold medal game had not even worn off yet, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-141347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}