Fort Lauderdale Wants You to Drink and Be Merry – for About a Week

Citys wants drinking laws relaxed for Super Bowl and Pro Bowl

Fort Lauderdale wants to party like it's 1979, but only when football's in town.

Harkening back to its old Spring Break roots, Ft. Lauderdale is ready to let loose and allow drinking from open containers during next year's Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, and it's all about the cash.

Citing the "huge economic impact" of the games, city officials are hoping to relax the alcohol laws to allow a little more partying, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

A special ordinance would declare the 11 days between the start of the Pro Bowl and the end of the Super Bowl as a "special event" which would allow drinking from plastic cups on A1A between Holiday Drive and Sunrise Blvd. The special event days would be from January 4, 2010 to Feb. 15, with the open drinking days Jan. 29 to Feb. 8.

The ordinance will have a final vote in two weeks.

Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler had talked about relaxing the open container laws back in May.

The move would be a stark departure from the the city's attempts over the past 25 years to end partying and fun in all its forms. Once the mecca for Spring Breakers in the '60s, '70s and early '80s, Ft. Lauderdale has quieted down it's image as a destination for drunken revelry.

But the lure of hard-partying football tourists with full wallets seems to have proven too great a temptation for the city.

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