October 5, 2026 · LIQUOR CONTROL · 9,015 words · 13 speakers · 56 segments
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, good morning. We're going to get started here. Obviously, it's a busy day, so we'll try to move things along. And I know a lot of members, we appreciate the members that are here, and I know some folks will be in and out as well. So let's see. We'll begin by our informational meeting today. We'll talk about the 2026 special event permits that were issued for the NFL draft in Pittsburgh and the World Cup in America 250 events in Philadelphia. These permits were a result of bipartisan work and support by the liquor committees and the state, House, and Senate to enact Act 56 of 2025 and Act 8 of 2026, allowing our cities to host and celebrate these events fully. Before I get started, I would like to thank the PA Liquor Control Board as well as the PA State Police Bureau of Liquor Enforcement for presenting today and explaining the licensing process involved and the safety enforcement aspects of these events. Additionally, we'll be hearing from Visit Pittsburgh and the City of Philadelphia who have impressively highlighted our magnificent state during these events in each of their respective cities. Their involvement and work here were instrumental in making these events a huge success and putting our great cities on a national stage. By working together, this committee was able to create opportunities for our state, businesses, as well as communities. I look forward to hearing from all of our presenters and learning how we continue to work together with them to attract similar events here in the future. And I appreciate the work of my co-chair here, as well as her staff, and the work of the Senate over the last couple years in helping a small part in what we played, a success in those events' success. So we will begin with our first panel. Please join us. We'll have Jason Worley, Mike Vigoda from the Liquor Control Board, as well as Annie Suffolks, as well as Major Bailey and Leslie Barr as well from BLCE.
Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Deasy, Chairman Fee, and members of the House Liquor Control Committee. My name is Major Robert Bale of the Pennsylvania State Police, and I currently serve as the Bureau Director for the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement. First, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to appear here today to discuss some matters with regards to the NFL draft. American 250 and also FIFA World Cup. Okay. So from the Bureau perspective our primary responsibility is to enforce the Pennsylvania Liquor Code and related laws and also work collaboratively with Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board local law enforcement licensees municipalities and also other public safety entities So the recent enactment of Act 56 and also Act 8 provided Pennsylvania with new mechanisms for accommodating major sporting and special events while maintaining regulatory oversight of alcoholic beverage sales. Specifically, Act 56 established a sporting event permit for qualifying public venues. Among other things, the permit allows an eligible public venue license to temporarily extend its license premises into an outside area associated with a qualifying sporting event. This authority was particularly relevant during the NFL draft held in Pittsburgh this past April. Act 8 subsequently established the Philadelphia 250 permit, which allowed eligible Philadelphia licensees during the period June 11th to July 20th to extend their existing on-premise operating privileges by two hours. So for certain licensees, including restaurant and hotel licenses, this meant alcohol beverages could be sold for on-premise consumption until 4 a.m. So for the Pittsburgh event, our primary enforcement consideration involved the size and configuration of the permitted area, the movement of alcoholic beverages within the area, underage drinking, service to visibly intoxicated persons, identification requirements, compliance by alcohol service personnel. Large-scale outdoor events are fundamentally different from enforcement within a traditional licensed establishment. So instead of a clearly defined restaurant or tavern, officers may be responsible for monitoring expanded premises, encompassing substantial outdoor footprint, and accommodating tens of thousands of visitors. Consequently, clearly established permit boundaries, maps, signage, access points, alcohol service location, coordination among event organizers, and law enforcement became extremely important. So during the events in Pittsburgh, there were a total of 14 operational details where L.C. personnel were deployed to assist. L.C. conducted 70 routine inspections, conducted 84 licensee visits, and dedicated well over 2,000 personnel hours to enforcement activities. Those efforts resulted in 70 warnings, 14 citations. Enforcement success should not be measured exclusively by the number of citations issued. So our overall goal is compliance with Pennsylvania liquor laws and safe and responsible service of alcohol beverages. A strong law enforcement presence, advanced education, coordination with licensees can prevent violations before enforcement actually becomes necessary. So for Philadelphia, that presented somewhat different enforcement environment. The Philadelphia 250 permit allowed participating establishments to extend their normal on-premise operating privileges by two hours. Therefore, our principal concern was ensuring compliance during hours when many establishments would no longer be authorized to sell alcoholic beverages. So from the Bureau perspective, we work closely with the Philadelphia Police Department, also with LCB, city officials, and other participating licensees. During this period we conducted over 90 operational details where LCE personnel deployed to assist LCE conducted 49 routine inspections 150 licensee visits and dedicated well over 3 personnel hours to enforcement activities Those operations resulted in 32 warnings, six citations, two felony misdemeanor criminal investigations, and again, we should also recognize compliant establishments. LSE was extremely proactive by visiting establishments throughout the city, Philadelphia, and educating licensees on enforcement. So here's some lessons learned. Based upon our enforcement experience, several factors are particularly important when Pennsylvania authorizes temporary or expanded alcohol privileges to major events. First, advance notification is extremely critical. LSE needs sufficient time to know which licensees have been approved when the permit becomes operational. The precise boundaries are permitted areas and any special condition attached to those permits. This allows commanders to appropriately allocate personnel and coordinate with local law enforcement. It should also be noted that advanced notification was conducted properly by the board, and that's why we had a success. Second, permit boundaries must be clearly defined. For large outdoor events, detailed maps and clearly identifiable physical boundaries significantly assist both licensees and law enforcement determining where alcoholic beverages may lawfully be sold and consumed. In some cases, the special permitted areas were not clearly defined. Third, interagency coordination is essential. L.C. does not operate in isolation. The success of these events depends upon cooperation with the board, PSP, local police departments, municipalities, event organizers, and other public safety entities. Finally, the General Assembly should consider the resource impact associated with these permits. Large-scale events and extended alcoholic service can require additional personnel, overtime, supervisory oversight, and a lot of resources utilized to ensure that we have a safe event. So while the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia events had adequate resources, the outline calls should be considered when evaluating future legislation or detailing whether similar permit structures should be expanded to additional events or jurisdictions. So in closing, from an enforcement perspective, our objective is straightforward. Allow Pennsylvania to successfully host major events while ensuring that the Commonwealth's liquor laws continue to protect the public. LSE experience in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia provides an opportunity to evaluate these new permit structures based upon actual operations rather than assumptions. LSE remains committed to working with the General Assembly, the Board, and local law enforcement, hospitality industry, and other entities to ensure we achieve this objective. Thank you for giving Pennsylvania State the opportunity to provide comments regarding this matter. And we're open to any questions you may have.
Good morning, Chairman Deasy, Chairwoman Fee, and members of the House Liquor Control Committee. My name is Jason Worley, and I serve as the Chief Counsel for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Joining me here today are Andrew Stuffik, our Director of Regulatory Affairs, Michael McVigoda, our Director of Legislative and Governmental Affairs, and also Board Secretary. Thank you for this opportunity to come and speak to you today on the special sporting event and Philadelphia 250 permits that were created under Act 56 of 2025 and Act 8 of 2026. Throughout the implementation of these acts both Acts 56 and 8 the PLCB endeavored to work collaboratively with permit applicants to support Pennsylvania restaurant and hospitality industry while also ensuring that all statutory requirements were met. We appreciate the commitment of this committee to convening stakeholders involved in these landmark special events held across the Commonwealth this year, and we look forward to answering questions from the committee members. I know you heard from Major Bailey on a lot of the enforcement efforts. If there are questions that go more towards the application process, we're certainly happy to take those up. Thank you.
Thank you. I guess my first question for Major Bailey, what was the difference between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., like on a typical weekend?
You know, what you see normally at 2 o'clock closing time, inebriation, intoxication, activities outside of bars, Was there much of a difference between the 2 and 4 a.m.? So from an operational standpoint, there was not a difference. However, as far as manpower, that was the biggest concern for us. I will tell you that a lot of the establishments that decided to pursue the 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. had issues with providing staff. So a lot of those folks actually closed early because they didn't have adequate staff. But as far as what it looked like prior to 2 a.m., it was very similar as far as the type of violations we encountered.
Thank you. We'll open up for questions. Mindy, go ahead, and then we'll go from there. Mine's real quick. Just to follow up, how was the cooperation between you and with local police?
It was phenomenal. I mean, as far as obviously in the Philadelphia area, you had a Philadelphia Police Department. You had troop assets like Troop K. They cover Montgomery County, Philadelphia County, Delaware Counties. You had LCE, our primary responsibilities, liquor laws. You had SAP, the police department. Several agencies involved, and the cooperation was great. The planning was phenomenal. We're talking about well over a year dealing with the FIFA event as far as planning is concerned. Communication was great. That was phenomenal.
Good, good. Well, and hopefully that helped with staffing, too, for both of you. I mean, if you use all resources. Thank you. Next, Rep. Isaacson.
Good morning, and thank you. And thank you for all the hard work that you did to make these events around the Commonwealth such a success. My question really goes to the permitting for the 4 a.m., but with regard to the FIFA, was the boundaries defined enough? Because that seemed to be the big success point as a Philadelphian and living through the whole FIFA event and all that was going on. You had mentioned in your testimony with regard to the boundaries being an issue on the definition of them. It was an outdoor area, so I didn't know whether that was able to be contained to stay out of the neighborhoods and if that was sufficient.
So in Philadelphia, it was sufficient. I mean, the boundaries were outlined, easily able to discern this is an established area for control of alcohol sales, things of that sort. There were a few instances out in Pittsburgh where they were not defined. However, after our LEOs became aware of that, educated the licensees, they were able to correct that.
Okay, great. And let's all note, Philadelphia did a good job. They did a great job, actually. It was all very well. With regard to the application process, as I was being informed and updated, considering all the liquor licenses that were applying, who actually ended up obtaining permits as opposed to those who applied? I found very interesting as we went through the process. I heard from many of the establishment owners in my district that it was not only a staffing issue with regard to staying open to 4 a.m., but insurance, you know, the clientele, even willingness. They weren't, from what I understand, even the ones that were allowed to stay open, that there wasn't a large financial gain on behalf of that. And I think a lot of that had to do with that we had two issues going at once. You had the FIFA fan zone, which is where the majority of people went. If you went anywhere near the art museum during any game, there was no moving. Except for the people getting dropped off. But, again, to the application process, if we ever did consider anything further for special event permits, the parameters that we put on were a high vetting level, a high expertise. You know, you had to meet a very high bar to even be allowed to have that. But could you explain to the committee, because I don't necessarily know for any, with the exception of special events, which is what most of these were, you know, what that process was. Why were there so many applicants and why were they not given the license?
Sure. So we had a total of 66 applications that came in. 53 of those were approved. Nine of them were canceled on behalf of the applicants, either because they didn't get the training in time or they just didn't have staff to do so. We only denied four places because they didn't respond to us. And the main issues we had were the 30-day posting requirement, along with Philadelphia had a requirement for the Liberty Bell Safe Certification Program. So those two components, and then from an internal perspective, We also vetted places to make sure that we didn't have any nuisance bar type establishments, any noncompliant, any place that's under inspection. So the scope was narrowed to the good actors. And we turned these applications around probably within a couple hours. From our perspective, it was very easy. Once we had the certification and once we had the posting done, we could approve those an hour. We did 24 on day one and I think up to 37 before the first Philadelphia FIFA event. So all of them were done before the 4th of July. But that 30-day deadline kind of was the block for us. It was hard-coded in the statute, so we really couldn't move until that 30 days had lapsed.
Okay, thank you. And my only other follow-up, just to remind everybody, because we did do this very quickly, is we have to get a good handle around the vetting process with regard to that 30-day posting did not allow, because it had to go through the city, it did not allow for any protest of the application through the LCB.
Correct.
Okay, so I just want to make that very clear that that was, you know, something that was problematic. I understand that we had a special event going on but as we consider further applications we need to remember that we should not be circumventing that safeguard for the communities we live in Thank you Thank you
And prior to your questions, I should have acknowledged all the work you did on behalf of your constituents. I believe you have more licensed establishments than anyone else in the State House. And Mary was very vocal. She was very particular to the safeguards in place. And we do appreciate all your work on behalf of your residents. Absolutely. Next up, Rep Mahaffey.
Thank you, Chairman. Thank you for your testimony today. Your question was kind of answered. I think you said 67 applicants. How many total, and this goes back to you, Mary, maybe you can answer this, how many total licensees are able to apply for that out of the Philadelphia County for this particular two extra hours?
For this event, I think we anticipated about 150 that were prequalifying, But that was dependent, again, on them obtaining the proper certification through the city. We had planned on 200 as our ceiling. We expected less than 100 just based on the universe there, and that's kind of what came through. The limiting factor was the neighborhoods, the training that Philadelphia could offer, and the requirement that you are a good actor, so to speak, and that you're not a nuisance establishment.
Sure. And how many total licenses are there in Philly?
Probably around 2,000.
2,000, okay. And 67 applicants applied, nine were denied. Nine were canceled, four were denied. I'm sorry, four were denied, nine were canceled. Okay, thank you. Yep.
Thank you. Red Powell.
Thank you so much, Chair. Thank you all so much for your remarks today. I had a question along the lines of Representative Isaacson about process. I sit on the Visit Pittsburgh board and we talk all the time about how do we get the next big things. We are very excited to have the draft, but already thinking about what else we can do, what other major events we can host in Pittsburgh. And I wanted to talk a little bit about what you see being the process moving forward. What can we do to ensure that as we're bringing more special events, as we see more large-scale events, if we wanted to do this more frequently, what are the things that we should be thinking about to have maybe a more standardized process for these special events to happen, and then special considerations for those business owners? What can we be doing in our process solidification to make sure that these businesses have the inventory, the staffing that they will need to have, you know, successful events in the future if we have a more standardized process?
Well, the easy answer is time, you know, getting as early as possible in front of it and getting awareness of what the event is. For the NFL draft, it was probably an ideal situation. We had lobbyists, we had attorney R.J. O'Hara that had reached out to our office probably a couple months to a year in advance knowing that this was going to happen. So we sat down together, our team, and we looked at what would the holes be in the process for licensing that entire stadium area. And that was important because we outlined the issues that came about, which required a legislative change, creation of these SSCP permits, as we call them. So that gave us the runway to kind of, you know, get in front of everything, and that was the ideal situation if we could just get this ahead of time there are a lot of factors that people don look into and you miss the minor things until we get in a room and put our heads together we really don know what those are So you know timing is definitely it but contact you know and bringing all parties forward
If I could just expand on that, too, I would completely agree with that. I think timing is the key issue, and I think it's a matter of, from the legislature's perspective, determining what rights you want to give individuals to protest these types of events or permits when they're happening. Obviously, if you want those rights to exist the same way that they do when someone's issued a regular liquor license, there is typically a 30-day window built into that. There also needs to be additional time, though, for the LCB on our end to process that application, schedule a hearing, get it in front of a board hearing examiner, get that opinion from that hearing examiner and then for the legal office, my office, to do an evaluation and advise our board so our board can make a decision on whether to approve or reject that. But that is a rather complicated or cumbersome process. I mean, we go through that on a regular basis with just regular restaurant liquor license applications. And it can be a several months long, sometimes to a year process depending on how quickly things move. But I do think that that is something you need to give strong consideration to. Even though these are expansions on existing licenses, I would also keep in mind that for some of these permits, including the Philadelphia 250 permit, you're expanding the privileges with temporary permits that go beyond what the underlying liquor license allowed for. So you may have scenarios where communities did not have an issue with a restaurant liquor license, given the parameters that they know they have to operate under. But when you start doing things like expanding to 4 a.m., that may change people's perspective is one way or the other. And, you know, it may at least be worth giving some thoughtful consideration as to how that should work into the process. Well, from the operational standpoint,
I would just ask that you include us as far as planning. It's very important to have a representative in the planning process so we can figure out the adequate personnel we can assign to a specific detail. That requires overtime at times, and it'd be very beneficial if we had time to plan, as he alluded to. Thank you, Repel.
Anyone else? Chair Fee had another question. Sorry, Mary said something that made me think a little bit, and you may have the best idea talking to your business owners, but would the board do any kind of follow-up with the restaurants that got permits for this to see if it was worth it for them? Was it financially worth it? Was it to see what their thoughts are after the fact of the actual business owners that got those permits?
I mean, we certainly could. It was such a small number of permittees, it wouldn't be hard for us to gather them together and kind of get input what went wrong, what went right. Major Bailey spoke to the manpower issue, which is something we also experienced. I think the nine cancellations we had, that was pretty much it. They just didn't have the people to work until 4 a.m. So, you know, I'd be interested to see their obstacles from my end to see if there's something that maybe we could do better. I think we did put our full effort in, but again, there's always room for improvement, so I would welcome the opportunity on my end at least.
That be great I be interested in seeing that Thanks Back to Rhett Mahaffey Yeah thank you again Major Bailey in your testimony you had 32 warning six citations two felony misdemeanor criminal investigations Is that – was that with establishments only? And do you – if that is – excuse me – if that is so, how many arrests did they have of patrons and those public drunkenness, intoxicated patrons, all that kind of stuff?
So as far as from a license standpoint, they were administrative citations that fall under the liquor code. On the criminal side, we initiated two investigations that were consistent with misdemeanor felony investigations. These investigations are still ongoing. We didn't have any criminal arrests during that time period, straight administrative, that adhered to the liquor code.
Thank you.
Thank you. Seeing nothing further, I thank you for being here again. And thank you for your partnership in making these events a success. And hopefully moving forward, we can do everything we can, working together to attract more big-time events to the Commonwealth. So thank you all for being here. Thank you. Moving forward for our second panel, we will be joined virtually from Visit Pittsburgh as well as the city of Philadelphia. Are those folks with us?
Good morning. We're here if you can hear us. Yep. Good morning.
Good morning from Pittsburgh as well.
Okay, great. Do you want to introduce yourself? Then we will start with the greatest city in the Commonwealth, visit Pittsburgh. Thanks for being with us.
Good morning, Chairman Deasy. Good morning, Chairwoman Fee, and all the members of the House Liquor Control Committee. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Jared Bakker. I'm the president and CEO at Visit Pittsburgh. And I'll echo Chairman Deese's comment about being the greatest city in the Commonwealth.
You can just go with your testimony, Jared, and then we'll go from there.
Okay, Chairman. Thank you. So I'm certainly honored to be with everyone here today and certainly very thankful for the opportunity to join you virtually. to address and talk a little bit about the changes that were made to the Liquor Code to help us deliver the NFL draft here last April. Certainly happy to provide a high-level overview of how those changes impacted this event, which by many metrics is one of the most successful events, certainly held in the city of Pittsburgh, and even by NFL standards, was one of the largest and best events that the NFL has also ever hosted. We started this process to deliver this event almost four years ago, and we certainly could not have done it without the extreme cooperation that we experienced all the way through with our partners at the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the NFL, with the management at AccraShare Stadium, with our colleagues at Aramark, and then certainly elected officials from the city, the county, and the state. in addition to hundreds of local partners that it really took to deliver an event of that scale. The planning process, of course, identifies lots of various challenges as you're going through the planning of an event of that scale. Some of those are regulatory, one of those regulatory issues that came up in the planning process was the limitations of the liquor code and how that affected some of our license holders here locally. The draft footprint was a footprint for the event that was much beyond just one specific venue, including Acreshur Stadium, which was very much at the center of this. The footprint extended across the North Shore and over to Point State Park, which made it a really challenging footprint for everyone involved. It's not often that you have a major river like the Allegheny River splitting your site in half, which added some complexities to the planning process, which had to be tackled. Certainly happy to report that the work that this committee has done in coalition or in cooperation with our local partners really gave us the ability to deliver an event that was, again, on many metrics, absolutely successful. So we're certainly thrilled to be able to say that the work of this committee really helped us deliver an event for many reasons. When it comes to delivering a mega event of this size, whether it's an NFL draft, a festival, an international game that happened in Philadelphia, for example. These certainly don't take place within the context of a small area. There are so many businesses, so many areas that are impacted, and having the ability and the flexibility that this committee allowed us was certainly very helpful. Just as a bit of a recap, and I think many people here are aware of the outcomes of the draft, but over those three days, we hosted over 800,000 people within the footprint itself. From an economic standpoint, we were able to track $177 million of economic benefit to our local region. And then from a storytelling perspective, from a Brand Pittsburgh perspective, we were able to also track $1.5 billion of total economic value from the press and publicity that the city was able to achieve. 1.4 billion of that was done or was achieved during the draft event itself. From a public safety standpoint, I know there's been a lot of discussion this morning on the public safety outcomes of various events across the Commonwealth so far this year. We're thrilled to report that public safety officials for the draft itself reported to us that there were only two arrests and one citation in the draft site during those three days. And when you think of 105,000 people being in and around that draft site with all of the activities going on, having that amount of or that low amount of citations and arrests was really a remarkable feat. And certainly a huge, huge testament to the effect of all of our public safety officials and agencies across the city, county, state and federal level that were all part of the planning process. So a really exciting opportunity for us to continue to tell that story, among many other positive stories, including public transportation, which was another incredible outcome from this particular event in Pittsburgh, where we had 485,000 people take advantage of public transportation in and around the site over that weekend. And there again when you looked at from the op center when you looked at the public the road systems all of the traffic patterns that were in and around the downtown area throughout those three days the maps were green for most of the entire time meaning that the traffic was flowing the entire time because people were taking advantage of all of our public safety or I sorry our public transportation services So very quickly I do want to call out the impact that this committee had by making the amendments to the liquor control or the liquor code, one being the ability to expand the footprint. Aramark, of course, having their primary services provided inside Acquisture Stadium, able to expand throughout the entire footprint of the draft itself, was a really critical outcome to us being able to deliver all of the success of the draft. That gave us the ability to deliver a single master operator, again, Aramark in this case, who were able to manage all of the liquor service throughout that footprint. Also, allowing a 12-hour service window instead of the traditional six-hour service window was also really impactful because the draft was an all-day event on three separate days. That expansion of that service window was really absolutely imperative for us to be able to deliver an extraordinary experience for fans and visitors throughout the site, throughout the entire weekend. Another thing that was really important, of course, was the expansion of allowing manufacturers and distributors to provide equipment without charge. There was certainly no way that Aramark was going to be able to expand their service area without having access to critical equipment and infrastructure to be able to deliver the services that they wanted to deliver throughout the entire draft site. This was a free event to enter, but it was still considered a ticketed event by NFL standards. And so having the ability to have free tastings and services inside that footprint for this ticketed event was also something that was critical not only to the NFL, but all of the partners that they had throughout the site. So overall, in summary, this was an extraordinary event for Pittsburgh. It delivers to continue a lot of positive outcomes through the publicity that Pittsburgh was able to achieve during that time. We're also starting to see a lot of other inquiries for events of scale, of large scale, into future years, which is also going to be another dividend that pays benefit far into the future. So we continue to ride the wave of the success of this draft. And again, so thankful for the work of this committee and everything that you allowed us to do to be able to deliver an event of that scale. So, again, thank you very much, Chairman.
Thank you, Jaren. Great work you guys did. Next, we will go to City of Philadelphia. Karen Fegley.
Hi, good morning. Thank you so much for having us here today. I'm Karen Fegley, the Acting Commerce Director for the City of Philadelphia. I'm sorry that we're not there in person. And we are hosting a large event today, an economic development event, and needed to be in two places at once. So this works great. Thank you. I am glad to be accompanied today by my colleagues in the police department and the mayor's office.
If you could introduce yourselves, Deputy Commissioner Healy. Sure. Good morning, Chairperson Deasy and other members of the Liquor Control House Committee. My name is Deputy Commissioner Frayne Healy. I'm Chief of Staff and Legal Affairs for the police department. And I'm here with Deputy Commissioner Maisha Massey, who oversees our community partners group. And part of that was overseeing a lot of the nuisance activity associated or the anticipated nuisance activity, I should say, associated with the FIFA and the 250 activities. So we're here to answer any questions.
Good afternoon everyone committee members My name is Edward Adney I the senior director of intergovernmental affairs in the mayor office
So, again, we thank you. You know, like Pittsburgh, we really share appreciation for this committee's flexibility and willingness to try some new things. And like Pittsburgh, we look forward to hosting more big events in the future. I will not get into the best city conversation right here, but I will say we have a lot in common in this room right today, so that's great. And as we've discussed, the Philadelphia 250 Extended Hours Permit Program authorized eligible hospitality establishments to extend on-premises alcohol up till 4 a.m., just between June 11th and July 20th. 20th. And it was created to support increased economic activity associated with America 250, FIFA World Cup. We also had the MLB All-Star during that time. But there was a big focus on maintaining established public safety expectations. And again, we appreciate all of your cooperation in making that happen. I'm going to start back a little bit from the beginning of the process from our point of view because there was, as was mentioned, a requirement before you could apply to PLCB, you had to get a certificate from the city that showed that you completed our Liberty Bell Safe Certification Program. So we had a total of 86 businesses that applied for our training program, this Liberty Bell Safe Certification Program. 67 ended up receiving that certificate, which meant not only that they completed like the one-day training program, which covers a number of topics that late-night businesses really have to deal with, but it also meant that they had been reviewed and approved through all of our – we had a multi-department team, a Tiger team that included our Department of Revenue, Department of Licenses and Inspections, Health Department, Police Department, and we ensured that these businesses were compliant in every way. And that was considered how you completed the training, not just attending the class, but being in good standing, as well as submitting, like the training program itself, like it was how do you do a safety plan? They had to submit a safety plan, a safety and security plan, in order to get their certificate. So we felt this was really helpful in screening and ensuring that the people that the businesses that were going to apply to the state were businesses that had capacity to really manage these extra hours, which was what we all wanted. So the training program itself, the modules of the day-long training include harm reduction, conflict de-escalation, sexual harassment prevention, human trafficking awareness, active shooter preparedness, and just operational readiness. So the operational and economic outcomes we're finding have varied. And Rep. Isaacson, you spoke to this. Not everyone either wanted to participate. Some of them applied and decided not to do it or did it on a limited basis. We are in the process of surveying every business. I will say only we've only gotten 21 of our like formal, you know, submitted surveys yet. So we are going out one, you know, to each individual to really collect this information so that we can give you a full picture. But right now we seeing a very mixed a mixed response of businesses whether they made money or not So some identified it as beneficial to revenue and staffing Others reported very limited late activity Staffing feasibility was stable Most operators said they could manage it, but we do think that some of them didn't apply because they knew they wouldn't be able to staff it. Important thing is that public safety indicators, there were no significant safety related incidences. There was no serious disturbance or emergency responses during this extended hours period. It did, as was discussed by LC, it required additional staff by our police. So there was additional man hours, but there were no, fortunately, there were no major police incidences. And the neighborhood impacts are similar. We are finding through our experience and surveying that there was a pretty neutral impact on neighborhoods. One of the positive outcomes, like somewhat unexpected or just not necessarily planned for, was that the improved regulatory compliance. So while businesses were going through this process, it was an opportunity when you're sort of dangling this carrot of these extended hours above them. There were a few businesses that had fallen behind on taxes or, oh, they hadn't gotten their last health inspection. And so we were able to get all of these businesses into full compliance, which is just a positive for all of us, I think, to know that that's happening. So overall, it was a really positive experience for us. I think there are some lessons learned. And, you know, again, we really appreciate your willingness to try something and we'll see where we go from here. And I don't know if my colleagues in police, do you want to add anything or just wait for questions?
I'll just say it very quickly. First and foremost, thank you for your help. We appreciate it. We You reached out and you responded, and that was very, very much appreciated here in Philadelphia. And as the commissioner mentioned, we're, like I said, we're police. We anticipate or we plan for the worst, and D.C. Massey can talk more about it in the questions. But we didn't see what we anticipated, so that was a great relief. But also I think you saw how the city really performed in general. So we're very happy for the help that you offered. and also very happy that we didn't see the problems that we had anticipated. But myself and D.C. Massey are here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
As we go into questions, Jared, I had a quick question for you. As we talked about the changes we made to 4 a.m. in Philadelphia, do you think that would have made an impact in Pittsburgh? Because there were some complaints about some restaurants in different parts of the city who did not have a good weekend, for instance, because they were outside of that zone. If we would have, let's say the first night of the draft concludes at 1230 or whatever, had we had that 4 a.m. in Pittsburgh, would that have made a difference in some other neighborhoods throughout the city to help them out throughout the process?
Yeah, thank you for the question. We have not received any feedback or information that would support that theory necessarily. You know, one of the challenges that we did experience with the draft, as you've rightfully pointed out, was just the expansion of the economic benefit outside of the footprint itself. Because the NFL and our local providers did so much to program inside the footprint, those travel consumers or even our local residents really didn't filter into surrounding neighborhoods and have as big of an economic impact as we would have hoped. But I don't know necessarily that extending hours of operation would have had any major impact. on changing that outcome.
Thank you. Yeah, that was the only complaint I heard. Like I said, it was an awesome weekend. Everybody did their job again. And you mentioned the PRT, the amount of folks that took transit that week was unbelievable. And it really showcased what we're capable of if we put our mind to using the system that we have. Next question, Representative Auten.
Thank you, Chairman. And thank you all for everything you did to make these events really fantastic. I happened to be in Pittsburgh during the draft and then also live in the Philadelphia suburbs and was able to be in the city for some of the World Cup events and fun. And my staff also participated in the World Cup stuff. So both events seemed to go off really well. and have overall positive impact, I think, on the image of Pennsylvania, the image of our cities. I'm really happy to see the public safety wins for all of these events. One of the things I did here and experience was, especially in the Pittsburgh area, I feel like there might be maybe a capacity issue in terms of parking. So, for example, my sister and her sister-in-law both had to stay home from work that whole week because parking was so expensive where they worked that they were not able to be in the city that week. One works for the 911 center, so that was a little bit concerning to me that are the residents who keep our cities moving able to go to work and not have a significant economic impact on their households and on their child care and things like that? How do we create infrastructure so that families who live in these communities are not having disruption in their lives in a way that gives them a negative opinion of these kinds of things. I was a small business owner in downtown Westchester and owned a retail boutique. Retail businesses don't always have a positive impact from things like this because as the crowds come upon downtowns, people who regularly shop in retail tend to stay away. And so just some curiosity around some of the feedback. You mentioned there's some surveys out there. Some of the feedback to the other businesses that are impacted that are non-hospitality, whether that be professional businesses and, you know, services, community services and or retail. that's for me i think right um uh thank you uh i i'm hearing some of the same things i think it's um somewhat something that happens with large events when people don't know what to anticipate what to expect and we've seen this uh in philadelphia at different times um i i remember when the papal visit was one where we all sort of geared up for one thing and it was a wonderful but it did not bring the business people expected at all. I think in the case of FIFA, there was a lot of...
I do think the parking garages raised their prices. That was a private market decision. I heard some of them complain about it So maybe they learned a lesson from that I know also a lot of businesses decided to have their staff work virtually during those those weeks It wasn really necessary that you know, there was plenty, the public transportation was running, the parking lots, there was room, they were expensive, I guess, as you said, the traffic was not anywhere near as bad as it was, I believe, and I'm speaking, I don't know this, I should, I shouldn't, maybe I shouldn't
say it. I don't know this is fact, but I do know is fact that there were signs on the highways on 995 as well as even in New Jersey about, you know, traffic alerts like there will be a FIFA game on this date, you know, plan ahead. And what I'm not positive, but I think is we actually had those taken down at some point during the event because there weren't these traffic issues. And we were sort of keeping people out of the city who could have come and been part of just the part of the excitement or just coming for their daily life, right, for their work, for their daycare, for their schools for their doctor's appointments, we certainly don't. We do need to make sure that we are allowing people to come and do their, you know, use the city for all the things that the city offers. So I do think that's a very valid concern and should be part of planning for any future events. Thank you. Rep Isaacson. Okay, I'll be quick because I know we have time, But I am going to throw out there that we did a fantastic job, and I would argue on what the best city in Pennsylvania is. My question, not to the 4 a.m., I think that we don't have the data on it. But certainly with the FIFA fan visitor zone, and especially the police, was the management of not just the transportation, moving people in and out, But in the surrounding areas, what was the impact and extent with regard to the communities that were around them? I know some of the bars definitely experienced an uptick over in that area, which is over by the Art Museum and Fairmount neighborhood. But it certainly – we weren't having such crowds in different areas of the city. But just for the extent of that, and that'll be it, Mr. Chairman, because I know you have a list and we have the time constraint. Thank you. Excuse me, I'll jump on that very quick, Rabbi Iveson.
Luckily for us in Philadelphia, we've done many, many things on the parkway. So the issue is interacting with the community in the Fairmount area is part of the overall plan. We've been planning for this for well over a year and a half. So the community was very much brought into it. So a lot of times what happens is we set these things up, but then the community can't get back home in different ways. We have protocols in place to make sure that the residents actually can access their neighborhoods. Now, it's an inconvenience. I'm not going to lie. But it's not an inconvenience that they couldn't get home. We anticipate that. We make sure that they have ingress and egress for that very purpose on the parkway itself. and the fringe of the parkway is very much a part of the old special operations plan when we come up together with these things. So taking the community and the external businesses on the fringe of the parkway is something that was included in the overall plan to make sure that those folks could have access. Because this is a 39 event This is not just a one event So we had to make sure that they really had access and that their lives can go on They can get to work on time They can go home handle their kids on time So that was a very big part of the overall planning from the special operations perspective from our people
I know that. I hope that answered your question. Thank you. Next, we have Rep McAndrew followed by Rep Salisbury. Thank you. My question pertains to kind of those outlying establishments that we already kind of touched base on that were outside of the footprint, particularly in the Pittsburgh area. Overall, I also have a major event that comes through my district every 10 years or so, and we have one returning next year. And one of the continued complaints I have from my establishment owners is that outside of the footprint of the event, We are lacking economic support. And so we heard that again at the draft the days following it that there were certain establishments outside of the footprint that staffed up that didn't really receive the support that they expected from the event. My question is, are we reviewing the barriers that are preventing people from leaving that footprint? And if we are reviewing those barriers, I think that we should be making a strategy to grow our efforts to prevent lack of participation from economic drivers in the region. But, Jared, can you answer that specifically?
Sure, Representative. Happy to. And from a USGA standpoint, which takes place with the U.S. Open in your district, another huge success opportunity from a reputational economic standpoint for the region. However, your point is certainly very well made. Making sure that that economic benefit does penetrate as much of our community as possible is absolutely key. So we went through the effort along with a lot of our partners to try to educate consumers and residents who are attending these events to make sure they are spending as much time and as much money, if you will, in the local community because it's important for those businesses. Certainly in the Oakmont area, as well as in the surrounding areas in the downtown for the draft, you know, those businesses not only didn't feel the impact from consumers who were attending the event, their traditional consumers, consumers that they would typically serve on a regular basis, also have the tendency to stay away because they're afraid of crowds and traffic and those types of things. So there's a lot more education and outreach that needs to be done when these events take place. And that was certainly a lesson that we took away from the draft. When you hear in our prediction for the draft itself was somewhere between 500 and 700,000 attendees, and if you're a business owner in a strip district, for example, just adjacent to the downtown area in Pittsburgh, and a business owner, you're going to get very excited. You're going to get very excited about the traffic that you're expecting to see, and you're going to plan accordingly. We conducted with in relation to the draft, we conducted over 100 different presentations to community groups, including the business owners of the strip district, business owners in the downtown area and so forth. And we're trying to be very, very clear that the people, the individuals who are going to be coming for the draft are likely going to be at the draft footprint and to proceed with caution. You know, businesses still want to be prepared. You know, if you're a restaurant owner or if you a t vendor or whatever the case is you want to make sure you have enough product and staff to take care of whatever crowd you going to get But we just didn know moving into it where those crowds were going to be And the same with the U Open But the bottom line is that we need to continue as a community to figure out how we communicate that to our business owners, but also at the same time, how do we continue to reach out to individuals who are attending these events to make sure that they know that things are going on and that these businesses are there so that everybody can maximize their benefit from these events.
I couldn't agree with you more. I think that we do have to prioritize getting information to individuals. And specifically, I look forward to, as future events arrive, a strategy around that. So I look forward to those conversations. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Our last question will be from Rep Salisbury, because we know there's a meeting in here next. So Rep Salisbury, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Chairman. I want to build up of Representative McAndrew's question, can we promote utilization of existing licensees, premises during these types of events? You know, we talked about how there was not only a lack of anticipated new business, but a loss of existing customer base during some of these events. Can you talk a little bit about ways to promote that, to avoid that loss?
I believe that question was for me as well, Representative. Yes, absolutely. There's certainly a lot of ways that we can connect with individuals who are attending these events. Certainly in the case of the draft, we utilized the NFL Draft app, which was required to enter the site. We created a Pittsburgh guide for those individuals attending, promoting different things that are going on outside of the draft area, trying to get people into some of these surrounding communities. Same with the USGA, for example. I know this is important for the Oakmont area, working with the USDA and their communication systems to make sure we're populating that information. And then, of course, we're using our own digital channels to make sure we're reaching travel consumers that are coming into the market as well to help make sure that they understand all of the things going on. And then working with businesses to create promotions and other incentives to get consumers into their businesses. There's a lot of different layers that we can put in place as we continue to move forward, but really valuable lessons that are coming out of these events as we continue to host them. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Rep. Salisbury. With that, no further questions from anybody. We appreciate you guys for joining us as well and your partnership in making these events a huge success. Again, as we almost wrap up this session, I do want to thank all members of the committee. We were busy. We made an impact on these events, and I appreciate the time and efforts of all those on the committee in being part of that success. So with that, we are adjourned. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.