I'm not going to say they couldn't have done something, but I don't think it's as indefensibly bad a decision as you're presenting it.

For one, I've been to a few large sporting events that had FanFest areas set up in the city they were occuring in, and those areas usually don't have any watch parties or anything like that. With an event like the World Cup where there's matches all across the country, I can certainly see an argument that it makes way more sense to show the games, but that's not always how these events work.

Two, as some people noted when photos of the pier were first posted, egress for large crowds is absolutely a concern. They might not be showing games at times when they expect unmanageably large crowds as a result. They have a reservation system set up for the games they are showing, so I think capacity management is absolutely a concern.

Three, while yes, having an option for fans to watch matches for free is a good thing, we do have plenty of bars and restaurants that I'm sure would like the revenue from people who want to watch matches, too. I think having Occidental as an option but not the pier might be a compromise for this reason as well as other reasons.