photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Soccer is played with your feet, but in my experience, it is watched with your hands — often with a cold, sudsy beverage in them. One of Lawrence’s most popular soccer bars has filed plans to expand, in part, to make sure it has plenty of room for soccer fans and other patrons.

The Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., has filed plans with City Hall to expand into the space adjacent to the tavern, which will allow the tavern to add an additional bar and indoor seating for about 50 patrons.

The significance of the expansion goes well beyond soccer. (I know soccer fans will have a hard time believing anything is more significant than soccer.) But the expansion plans are the latest sign that the downtown bar scene is poised to get bigger for the first time in decades.

As we’ve reported, city commissioners for the first time in a long time are allowing true bars — i.e., businesses that don’t sell enough food to be considered a restaurant — to expand in downtown Lawrence. For decades, the city has had regulations that prohibit the opening of a true bar in downtown Lawrence, unless that bar opens in one of a handful of buildings that already operated as a bar.

In other words, one goes out, one can go in. That rule is still in place. What’s changed is that those existing bars now are allowed to apply for a special use permit to expand into a space that is immediately adjacent to their bar. In short, the rule will allow existing bars to basically double their size, if they have a willing neighbor.

It is potentially a game-changer for the downtown bar scene. Sue Neverve, who owns the Red Lyon with her husband and son, said the business models of bars have changed a lot over the years, especially following the pandemic. But, in downtown Lawrence, it hasn’t been so easy to change.

“It is really important,” Neverve said of the regulation change. “We haven’t been able to expand for the last 30 years, even when we otherwise had the opportunity.”

The Red Lyon plans to use the additional space as needed. That will include on game days for soccer and KU basketball and other such events that traditionally pack the 101-seat tavern. It also plans to make the space available for private parties. The tavern is creating a system where people who need a space for about 50 people can occupy the space, buy their beverages from the Red Lyon, but make their own arrangements to bring in food for the party.

“We have people who want to do a wedding shower, a graduation party and those type of things here,” she said.

The Red Lyon is poised to be the second downtown bar to take advantage of the new regulations. As we reported, Leroy’s Tavern, 729 New Hampshire St., recently won approval to expand into vacant space.

It is a valid question how many more bars in downtown Lawrence will seek similar expansions. Neverve assumes there will be others. After all, the city has been sending some different signals about the spread of alcohol establishments in downtown. Businesses that are not either a bar or a restaurant can now qualify for a liquor license, if they meet certain regulations. Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop’s decision to open a cafe that serves alcohol inside its retail business was the first one to go in that direction.

Some people might become concerned that the new regulations will change the downtown district in undesirable ways. The rallying cry that led to the limit on bars in the first place was that people didn’t want downtown Lawrence to turn into Aggieville, a downtown bar district in Manhattan.

Neverve said she thought the new regulations would be good for downtown. She thinks the downtown district is healthy enough that the market will promote a diversity of uses downtown. Plus, it is not like every building will be eligible for a bar to expand into. It involves only storefronts that are next door to an existing bar.

“I think we are a temperate kind of place,” Neverve said. We are not all one thing or another. And, there is a real limitation on how many businesses would be able to expand this way.”

Neverve said she thought the new regulations could help some with vacancy issues in downtown. The space that Red Lyon hopes to expand into — it is at 940 Massachusetts — most recently was a small jewelry shop that closed its business at the location.

“I think this will help downtown and the businesses here stay active and alive,” she said.

City commissioners must approve a special use permit before Red Lyon can expand into the space. Neverve said the earliest those approvals could be granted likely is mid-January, meaning the expansion is several months away.

Yes, soccer fans, that means it will be after the World Cup is completed.

“I wish the timeline was a lot faster,” Neverve said.

The expansion actually is just one of two projects underway at the tavern. The Red Lyon also has applied to make its “parklet” seating area — seating that was temporarily allowed in public parking spaces in the front of the business — permanent. As we’ve reported, the city has agreed to make the pandemic-era parklet program permanent, if businesses meet certain guidelines.

Neverve believes the Red Lyon is the first bar to go through the new city process to make the parklet seating area permanent. She said the process is significant. The application packet is 21 pages, she said. The tavern had to hire a landscape architect to help it complete the process, which the business hadn’t originally planned to do.

She said the improvements to the seating would include a stone wall and metal railings that are much more permanent and decorative than the barriers that exist now.

Neverve said her understanding is that at least 20 downtown businesses have applied to make their parklets permanent. Red Lyon hopes to have its parklet improvements done by January.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The “parklet” outdoor seating area for the Red Lyon Tavern is pictured on Oct. 26, 2022.