Bill Proposes Sober Seating Requirement for Colorado Sports and Entertainment Venues

A bill introduced at the Colorado Legislature would require official sober seating sections at large entertainment venues like Coors Field and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

State Senator Kevin Priola, the sponsor of Senate Bill 23-171, wants to see substance-free sections where alcohol, tobacco, vaping and other substances are explicitly prohibited at entertainment venues that seat 7,000 or more people, including college stadiums. If his proposal passes, those facilities would have to reserve at least 4 percent of their seats for alcohol and substance-free seating, or risk losing their liquor licenses.

“I’ve paid a lot of attention to the movement toward mocktails at bars. It was my hope to standardize the process across the state, and normalize sobriety at some spaces,” Priola says. “We…