When it comes to sports and beer, cheaters never prosper.
Idaho hockey fans at a Steelheads game at CenturyLink Arena in Boise last weekend alleged that the stadium had been duping patrons out of $3 when they purchased a large beer that held the same amount of beer as a small size, the Idaho Statesman reports. On Tuesday, four Steelheads fans filed a lawsuit in Boise's 4th District Court against the arena for $10,000 in damages for the money they lost over the past five years by purchasing the “larger” size for $7 instead of the $4 “small,” The Associated Press reports.
"While different shapes, both cup sizes hold substantially the same amount of liquid and are not large versus small in actual capacity," the group's attorney, Wyatt Johnson, wrote in the lawsuit, per the AP. "Defendants knowingly sold each of their beers in a similar manner at each event held at the arena where beer was sold for at least the last five years."
The suit was filed just days after a YouTube video posted by Gwen Gibbs -- who attended the Steelheads' game with Las Vegas on March 8 -- demonstrated how the same amount of liquid can be used to fill both the large and small beer cups. (See video above.)
"It's amazing what can be done with one little video and the power of social media," Gibbs told the Idaho Statesman.
In response to the fan backlash caused by the YouTube video, CenturyLink Arena said on March 10 that it will change the size of the cups to better reflect the price difference.
“It was recently brought to our attention that the amount of beer that fits in our large (20-oz) cups also fits in our regular (16-oz) cups," said Century Link Arena President Eric Trapp. "The differentiation in the size of the two cups is too small. To correct that problem, we’re purchasing new cups for the large beers that will hold 24 ounces, instead of 20, for the remainder of this season to provide better value to our fans.”