Provo • Four months after allowing Sunday beer sales, the city is poised to make it easier for conventiongoers to get a brew.
Wayne Parker, the city’s chief administrative officer, told the Municipal Council on Tuesday that the administration is drafting a new class of beer license to accommodate the Utah Valley Convention Center when it debuts in May.
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The proposal will be presented to the council Feb. 21.
Parker said the Utah County Commission and Global Spectrum, which will operate the center, sought the change. The center has already been plumbed for beer-dispensing equipment.
"We don’t have a license that fits," Parker said, "and that puts [the convention center] at a disadvantage with [its] competitors."
Provo permits beer sales at stores, restaurants (where 60 percent of the sales are food) and clubs (where minors are barred).
The administration is looking to Salt Lake City, St. George and Sandy to see how those cities crafted beer licenses for their convention centers.
The license would apply to public convention centers and athletic arenas, as well as private places where more than 5,000 people can gather.
Parker said the license would allow minors to be on the premises, but the beer could not be sold in original containers and had to be consumed on site.
Joel Racker, president and chief executive of the Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, backs the plan. "We don’t want to have a profitable group come that wants to serve beer but have to go elsewhere," he said.
In October, the council lifted a decades-long ban on Sunday beer sales.
Twitter: @donaldwmeyers
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