Ballparks sell diluted beer
I moved to New York several years after the ban on drinking in the bleachers of Yankee Stadium, and to a fan of the game from when I could lift a bat through my legal drinking age, I didn’t understand the reasoning. I heard the fight stories and am very familiar with those as an avid attender of Oakland Raider games, but beer drinking at the ball park has become as much of the past time as the stadium dogs, the peanuts and tossing back the opponents home run ball.
I understand the flip side of the argument that there’s a safety concern and we’ve all accepted the 7th inning last call now as well, intended to curb drunk driving home from the games. However, when this story came out, we at GPC were annoyed more than anything that Centerplate and Sportservice food distributors for ball parks are supplying lower-alcohol beer, as part of an “alcohol management plan,â€. We’re not fans of the watered down lager sold in the states anyway, however, robbing the fans of any additional buzz to “potentially” curb abusive and violent behavior is deceptive, misleading and just product infringement. You might as well sell RC cola as Coca-Cola. With the Padres terrible season progressing, they need any extracurricular activity from their fans that they can get to get some sort of entertainment out of watching a team of single base hitters.
Note that Centerplate is the same company that supplies the brew in Yankee Stadium and you’ll have the same results there. Best options are to continue to fill up before you go, bring in that flask, purchase bottled beers (if you can take the $9.50 price for a 12oz ale), or pick up a clever beer bag to smuggle it in (drink fast before it warms up).