My Yearly Plea To Ban Alcohol In The Bleachers

Do you have some reason for saying they were from Lincoln Park. Having grown up there I would like to know if this a generic insult or a fact.

As for your idea. I sit in the bleachers often and you could not PAY ME TO DRINK beer and very few are ever consumed in my section. However when you want the Yuppie crowd willing to pay a face value of up to $60 a ticket and scalping sometimes at $100 they get to drink their beer. Cubs literally rake in MILLIONS from the bleacher beer sales. They need to improve security not spend revenue they will need to cover releasing players.

but I find your language unnecessary.

Worse than Philly fans.

Enogh reason for me to ban drinking out there.

It’s not going to happen while the bleachers are the Bud Light Bleachers though

is like banning beer at a NASCAR race. 80% of the people who sit there are there for the “atmosphere”. You can pay less and sit in a nice 400 level seat. Banning beer will never happen.

 After I left the game in the 4th inning and saw that guy (not nec. a LP Chad) dump that beer on Victorino, I turned to the guy next to me at the bar and said, " that makes Cubs fans look terrible" to which he replied, “Cubs fans already look terrible.” I had no retort.

all there is to it

Because Chicagoans obviously cannot control their own weight.

Ban Shark and Miles.

but the jackasses in the bleachers have proved they’re not capable of handling their liquor. Ban it and make the bleachers seats affordable for families again. That way everyone wins.

Once the Cubs take a hardline on idiots that do this crap, and make it clear anyone who follows will be next, you’ll see this garbage stop. Kick them out of the park and have CPD take them to lock up. And then keep a running tally inside the gate of people prosecuted as a reminder.

…. I’d like to weigh in.

First, I’d like to thank everyone for reasonable comments on this issue (well, except for Worf’s above). There is no doubt that more security is needed — in fact, I noticed LESS security the last two days that most midsummer games.

Part of the problem is that the culture out there has been defined by the fact that people acting like idiots have, in general, been taken aside, had a five-minute discussion with security, then allowed back in. Message: “Hey, we can do whatever we want!”

In Yankee Stadium, where, as noted, they don’t sell beer in the bleachers, if you misbehave, a NYC police officer, either uniformed or not, will say, “Come with me”, and you are escorted out. No discussion, no backtalk, nothing, you’re simply ejected.

I will say that security has done better this year about tossing people for underage drinking. Now they have to deal better with the idiot behavior of people who ARE of age.

Blockquoted paragraph “The raucous fans who populate Yankee Stadium’s bleachers should return to form this season, now that the team has lifted its nine-year prohibition on performance-enhancing suds.” NY Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/03312009/news/regionalnews/true_brew_fans_162187.htm)

In general, banning is not the solution. Just because a few people cross the line doesn’t mean we get all prohibition on people. Prohibition does not work…

Allow people to drink and toss those that don’t do so responsibly.

You’re gonna have to ban all concessions. That could have just as easily been a braut loaded with kraut and spicy mustard.

We can’t let one idiot ruin it for the rest of us

For instance, next time, grab the right guy.

But ban beer? They’re not called the Bud Light Bleachers for nothing.

acts a fool, doesn’t yet get caught (nice job usher boys) and now the out cry to ban beer. Are you and Marty Brennaman related?

but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Most bleacher fans are adequately behaved.

I’m glad I could be there for it. Didn’t Lenny Dykstra also get his Wrigley baptism at one time?

Compared to when the entire crowd throws their cups and or random projectile promotional item on the field to protest a bad call or something this was relatively tame. If it was Philly it would have been a battery or mace.

Leave the guy alone.

Great catch considering the beer was raining down on him just at the ball arrived.

I like this one better

but was the guy thinking a HR ball was coming to him and just lost his beer?

I’ve sat in the bleachers every summer for over 20 years. Yes, you can see a lot of “stuff”. I personally saw 4 tossed in April vs. the Cardinals. It all had to do with people in a small space all with beers in hands or sitting on floor. Banning beer is not the answer, it’s just too much money.

What happened to a security person at every aisle? Not some 19 year old kid but someone who does their job? By the way the black security guard that seems to be the General of Toss Out is huge and not to be messed with. Once he shows up, there is no talking back or ‘splaining to do. You’re out. More of this will help PREVENT bleacher problems in the future.

That give Cubs fans a bad rap. I know a Mets fan who hates the Cubs and their fans. I think it reflects poorly on our fanbase when this stuff happens but as has been said before, I am not real sure there is a viable solution to the problem.

Now that’s a scary bunch. Wrigley and other venues cannot compare.

about what rained on him yesterday in Mexico City… After you get your answer, you let me know if you’re still “dismayed” and otherwise about last night in Chicago.

Beer sales lead to attendance which leads to revenue which leads to a bigger payroll which leads to

Aaron Miles.

I need a beer.

… i work in live entertainment marketing in my regular 9 – 5, but often moonlight with a private security company. I work at all Bears games, at a few Cubs games every season, at Lollapalooza and other concerts, at the concerts at Wrigley even. I work at some of the most drunken and redic places in Chicago on a very regular basis. And as an added point of view, if i’m not working, i like to enjoy those environments, often while under the influence. Now, i’d never throw a precious beverage on the field, but i’m still not with most of the commenting here.

The “ban beer in the bleachers” idea being tossed around is so counterproductive i can’t believe it’s being mentioned. Stay a few mintues after a game sometime and take note of the garbage. Entire handles of booze, tons of glass bottles of beer and more make it in. Funneling 40,000 + past security and truly checking every pocket and bag just isn’t possible. The stuff WILL get in. Check this girl i saw at a music festival a few months back…

So, you aren’t going to get a truly ‘dry’ bleacher experience, even WITH the Cubs banning booze out there. And why would they? I’ve heard they get between three quarters and $1.25 million in beer revenue PER GAME. Lets say, for the sake of argument, the bleachers account for a quarter of that (being that the drinking is heavier and starts earlier). That’d be a revenue loss of about $20,000,000 a season. That just ISN’T going to happen.

The real solution? Create an example of this guy. Chances are he’s something of a hero now to his buddies and other like-minded attention whores. Make sure – do anything within the teams power – to find and prosecute him. Never allow him in Wrigley again, and he’ll forever be known in bleacher lore along with “the last guy that got on the field before the basket fence”. If an example is made of him, his exploits won’t be so cool. You’ve got his picture, as well as his friends. Make a reward available (a guy like that almost certainly would have a few acquaintances who’d relish the chance to screw him over) and publicize whatever legal action you take against him.

Actions speak louder than words. I often have to boot the most obnoxious guy in an area of an event to ensure the rest of the idiots chill. Take that large-scale with the bleachers.

I think if people want to drink, they’ll do so, no matter if it’s technically banned or not. Banning may or may not make any difference whatsoever. Then, of course, there’s the argument that it was only one fan…and that’s very true, but the unfortunate part about that is that one fan becomes representative of the whole. That’s the fan we see, and for better or for worse, we will automatically associate the team with the fan, even if we understand that one fan doesn’t necessarily represent the whole fanbase.

I remember my first game at Comiskey Park about 25 years ago as an 11 year old (My Mom’s a Sox fan). White sox lose 4-3in the bottom of the 9th after a guy is called out at home on a “bad call”. I walked out of there drenched in beer, as we had “front row” seats in the bleachers and drunk comiskey fans don’t all get their cups all the way onto the field. I thought it was freakin hilarious – but when riding back to my relative’s house on the EL, there was a lot of raised eyebrows at these parents whose 11 year old kid reaked of booze.

please. The entire Bleachers don’t do anything. It IS a select few that will takew their behavior over the line and so it shouldn’t be that we all lose the priveldge of having a couple of old styles will watching a game because of a few.

I can’t get behind that.

That said, there’s no beer in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium either. It’ll happen eventually. Not that I’ll care because by the time it takes hold at Wrigley I’ll be to old and unhip to be out there anyway.

Beer = Good. mmmmmm…beer

I don’t know enough about bleacher behavior on a daily basis to know whether it’s to a point where a total ban is needed. Would a total ban make the bleachers less unruly, yes I am pretty sure that it would for a number of obvious reasons. But I think a total ban being unfair to many should seriously be considered.

Al has posted his recommendations for improving behavior and the bleachers and given tat he’s out there regularly those sound like pretty reasonable recommendations.

Again an incident happens and the henny penny crowd rushes to make a riduclously stupid thing happen.

Only an overreactionary says this should happen.

And I have had a grand total of 1 beer in 20 years of being 21 and over at Wrigley and that was on my 21st birthday.

Why not ban beer in bars because sometimes people pour it on other people. (I did that once when someone trying to pick me up wouldn’t take no for an answer. All over his head.)

Why not ban hot dogs because sometimes people get fat?

If everytime an incident happens in the world the overreactionary henny pennys had their way everything would be banned.

It’s kind of like the joke about if porn was banned on the internet. There’d be only one site left and it would be a petition to bring porn back.

Really…

One fan behaving like this doesn’t embarass me as much as many fans behaving badly.

I am far more embarassed as a Chicago fan tha at Bears games people threw things at Grossman and yelled obscenities, booed him when they won the NFC title game and cheered when he appeared hurt. That kind of subhuman garbage exhibited by a large group is far more embarassing than the behavior of one person.

Let’s throw away millions of dollars of revenue from beer sales, in a seating section with naming rights sold to Budweiser. Genius. Not to mention, depriving fans from enjoying a tradition as American as apple pie: beer at a ball game.

So… you want it to be the Pepsi Bleachers? And when someone dumps a Pepsi on Shane Victorino next year, are you gonna ban cola sales too?

there are idiots in the bleachers that drink way more than they should but this isn’t just at Wrigely. Gary Sheffield had beer thrown on him at Fenway and you don’t see them banning beer. I don’t like to see people thrown things onto the field regardless. How big of an issue is this? I have been there to see trash thrown on the field, people jumping on the field, and the Victroino incident. I just don’t think this occurs often enough to warrent terminating the sale of alcohol. How many times have you been to a game where people are so drunk by the time that they get there they get cut off before the first pitch. They are still intoxicating and capable of doing something frowned upon. I sit in the bleachers a lot and it seems that 99% of the time that there is an unruly fan they get talked to by security where they usually behave or act up more and get quickly tossed.
It seems the basis for your plea is embarrassment because if you didn’t want to be around alcohol you would sit in the family section. There are plenty of thigs that I am embarrased of besides the Victorino. Even stuff that players do.

And for the record, go to a game in Philly and wear some Cubs gear. Don’t root or say a word, just sit there. See how quickly you appreciate all Cubs fans.

… they degenerated into personal attacks, on me and others.