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It's Monday June the 12 around 3:42PM and

Hooligans on the Drive

How amazing is it that the World Cup is finally here? Not so amazing unless you really like soccer... Fortunately, they appear to have quarantined a special part of the city just for those wacky football fans. Not surprisingly, this bastion of the world's most popular sport is to be found down at Commercial Drive, where just about every cafe, restaurant and corner store will be showing all the games live.

They've even got this fancy thing set up called the Soccerio, where you can watch some of the games in an old movie theatre. Kind of cool, but in my opinion the best part of the World Cup is being able to drink beer at inappropriate hours of the morning, and the movie theatre isn't licensed. Perhaps this is some kind of attempt to keep down any potential hooliganism, but unless a lot of English fans arrive to take on the Italians, Brazlians and Portuguese who basically own the space right now, it's not likely to be a huge problem. Damn.

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Comments

Posted by: Darren

June 12, 2006 07:10 PM

I don't recall much hooliganism from 1998. I wasn't in the country in 2002. What happened on the Drive?

Posted by: Josee

June 13, 2006 09:08 AM

No actual hooliganism as far as I'm aware... Just my wishful thinking - soccer riots would make for great stories.

Posted by: miss604

June 13, 2006 03:12 PM

the korean fans went nuts this morning in our part of town - i remember in 2002 my co-workers wore red every day and would impersonate the korean players' speedskating imitation on the field at every possible moment. this is such a fun time in the city :D

Posted by: Andrea

June 22, 2006 09:58 AM

Just wanted to post and say that the the Soccerio event is actually at a beautifully renovated single screen theatre (2 million dollar investment) and that the $5.00 admission at the door will entirely go to the SOS Children's Villages BC. Some of the past games have sold out completely and it truly is a unique experience. So far, not a single patron has come through the doors and said the quality of the picture and sound is below their expectations. As for alcohol, this is really more of a licensing issue. A movie theatre in BC simply cannot serve alcohol and our theatre wants to make sure we abide by the regulations.

Thanks and come check out the games!