Idaho Steelheads hockey fans sue arena owner over beer sizes

A group of Idaho hockey fans sued a Boise arena this week, saying they were duped into thinking a $7 beer contains more brew than a $4 beer.

The lawsuit says CenturyLink Arena, home of the Idaho Steelheads hockey team, defrauded customers by charging $3 more for a tall, narrow cup advertised as a "large" that actually holds the same amount of beer as the shorter, yet wider cup described as a "small."

And, as any beer guzzling fan will tell you, size matters.

Four outraged fans of the ECHL team filed the suit Tuesday in Boise's 4th District Court against Block 22 LLC, which does business as CenturyLink Arena. Brady Peck, Michele Bonds and William and Brittany Graham are seeking $10,000 in damages.

The lawsuit came just two days after another hockey fan posted a video on YouTube of what the fan said was a beer purchased at CenturyLink Arena on March 8. That video shows a patron holding a large cup of beer and pouring it into an empty small cup. In both cups, the beer reaches nearly to the brim.

CenturyLink officials announced a short time later that the company would purchase new cups for the large beers that would hold 24 ounces instead of the previous 20 ounces for a bigger difference in size.

At the time, Eric Trapp, the president of the Idaho Steelheads hockey team and CenturyLink Arena, wrote on the team's Facebook page that the company had ordered 16-ounce and 20-ounce cups and never intended to mislead customers.

"It's amazing what can be done with one little video and the power of social media," said Gwen Gibbs, who down loaded the video. It already has over half-a-million views on YouTube.

CenturyLink Arena hosts concerts and other events and is also home to the Idaho Stampede, an NBA development league team.