Vancouver's Rio Theatre Plans to Reopen as a Sports Bar as Restrictions Lift Next Week

The Rio Theatre in Vancouver is planning to reopen as a sports bar if restrictions lift next week, City News reports.

The iconic theatre reopened as a sports bar last year when movie theatres were not allowed to open due to the pandemic.

The venue's owner, Corinne Lea, says it is struggling as a sports bar, and doing what they can to survive. However, she is hoping cinemas will be allowed to reopen soon.

"I would hope that we would at least get mentioned and told what kind of plan is happening," Lea said. "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."

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."

Read more on City News.

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