Rio theatre preparing to reopen as sports bar if restrictions lifted next week

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — For restaurant owners, reopening indoor dining would be the best possible news to come from Tuesday’s briefing. But for the Rio Theatre, having to continue operating as a sports bar is not ideal.

Last year, the iconic theatre changed its business model and reopened as a sports bar for the foreseeable future since the province could not allow movie theatres to open.

Despite adapting to the restrictions, Rio owner Corinne Lea says the sports bar is still struggling.

She says they’re doing what they have to to survive, but she’s hoping there’s room for cinemas in B.C.’s reopening plan.

“I would hope that we would at least get mentioned and told what kind of plan is happening. We’ve been asking the health authorities to include us with the restaurant and bar reopening because we believe that cinemas are safer than most bars and restaurants. But we haven’t heard an official response. So we’ll be tuning in on Tuesday to hear what they have to say,” Lea says.

Related Articles: 

• Vancouver’s Rio Theater pleased with roundtable discussion between province, arts industry

• Vancouver’s Rio theatre-turned-sports bar expecting to reap benefits of Super Bowl

• Vancouver’s Rio Theatre frustrated at ongoing closure as churches set to reopen

“It will be very disappointing if cinemas don’t even get mentioned. We’re kind of used to being treated last on the list, unfortunately, but it would be nice to see that change.”

Lea adds for the Rio it’s not a simple as opening their doors come Tuesday. She explains it’s been tough to lock down staff who might have gone elsewhere after the closure.

“We’re in the process of trying to figure out who’s available because it’s kind of difficult to find out who’s available when you don’t even know when you’re going to be open. So we’re still trying to communicate with our staff.”

And of course, they will need to coordinate with the sporting events taking place.

“The difficulty for us is because we’re operating as a sports bar, we also need to consider what sports are playing, right? Because people don’t really come down unless there is a game or something happening.”

And with all the unknowns, Lea says it’s becoming “very difficult.”

Becoming a sports bar was only meant to be temporary, and Lea says they can’t survive under this new identity forever.

“We just want to get open as a cinema as soon as possible … We can’t really make a living being a sports bar for very long. It just is giving us something to do to be open and getting our staff jobs. But we really just want to get back to being cinema again.”

If health officials allow indoor dining for bars and restaurants, Lea says they will likely need more time to prepare and delay their reopening to the weekend.