The Unexpected Law Rhode Island Has For Professional Sports Games

Rhode Island: The state that no one remembers, including those who live there. Just kidding. Founded in 1636, Rhode Island is a legitimately pretty and quaint place, full of lovely New England architecture, beautiful foliage and scenery, some excellent seafood and waterfront shopping, and bonus: There aren't too many people, at about 1.1 million in 2023. But it's a super small state, right? You might have no choice but to hang out with folks and maybe do some ultimate frisbee in a park on the weekend. Provided it's not Sunday, that is — then you need a license, amateur or not. Unless you're playing professional ice polo or hockey. Unless you're indoors, in which case you still need the license. 

Hold on, back up. Is that all for real? Why, yes. Rhode Island General State Assembly § 41-6-3 – an odd bit of oddly worded law — says exactly this. In short, if you're a professional athlete or sports team you need a license to play anything on Sundays, unless you're playing ice polo or hockey. Ice polo, by the way, is exactly that: horseback polo in the snow. But, if you're playing ice polo or hockey indoors in a rink or "enclosed building," you need a license, anyway. Beyond that, things get strangely complicated. 

Ultimately, the wording of Rhode Island's Sunday sports license law is stranger and far more confusing than the law itself, to be honest. Per the Rhode Island General State Assembly § 41-6-3, it says that any sport except ice polo and hockey can be played on Sunday with a license, "provided, however, that the bureau of licenses of the city of Providence may license ice polo and hockey to be played or held in rinks or other enclosed buildings on the first day of the week." So in other words: You can play ice polo or hockey on Sunday without a license unless you're in a rink or "enclosed building." Then you need a license.

Part of the strangeness of the wording of the license might come from the age of the law, which originally dates to 1919 and has been updated way more often than seems necessary, in 1923, 1928, 1938, 1951, 1956, and finally 1997. Was there a rash of illegal indoor sports in Rhode Island's past? Did people not confine their hockey to natural, frozen lakes? Also, were people riding horses on rinks? We're pretty sure that would just result in a bunch of broken horse legs.

There's another complication to Rhode Island's no indoor ice polo or hockey on Sunday without a license law. Digging into the Rhode Island General Assembly, the state's statutes differentiate between amateur and professional sports. The whole ice polo and hockey law refers to professional sports only. Amateur sports have their own rules, which seem more flexible.

To get into the legal weeds, Rhode Island General Assembly § 41-6-1 first differentiates amateur from professional sports because, in professional sports, people pay for tickets, and players get paid. "Amateur" means all kinds of games not strictly defined as professional. Then, § 41-6-2 says that amateur games still need to be licensed, like professional games. And, they can only take place from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, provided everyone maintains "good order." And, there's no mention of any distinction between ice polo and hockey and other sports in amateur. Why this is the case is anyone's guess.

Speaking of the aforementioned "good order," Rhode Island law gets even messier if we take statute § 41-6-6 into account. The statute forbids any and all athletic games — amateur or professional — from being played within 200 feet of someone who complains about it. On top of this, no games may be played within 500 feet of "any church or chapel," period.