Can fans survive without beer?

Simple Text By Joshua D. Scroggin

Last Friday, I went to a beer-throwing contest and a football game broke out.

But during the melee, after an airborne cup of beer had emptied itself into my hair, all I could think about was one question.

What if the rowdy fans in the student section had no beer to throw?

That in turn led to another question. Would they throw sodas instead? or hot dogs maybe?

Probably not, because they probably wouldn’t be drunk.

I’m not trying to make the case that every fan in the student section was drunk, but the one’s who threw half-emptied plastic bottles of beer onto the field had better have been. That seems to be the only acceptable excuse for doing stupid things.

“ People get a couple drinks in them, and you never know what’s going to happen,” said Oregon State Athletic Director Bob De Carolis.

But after the beer-chucking in Friday’s game and a highly publicized screwdriver-throwing incident last year, it’s a little easier to predict what Fresno State fans will do when they get a couple drinks in them—throw the third one.

The solution to the problem seems clear.

Get rid of the booze in the stadium—if not just to save the Fresno State public relations department from having to spin a possible beer-bottle caused player death, then to better the reputation of the students and the community.

The school could stop peddling its choice hops to the fans. They don’t sell beer at Tennessee or Oklahoma games.

But Fresno State officials said the loss of alcohol concession revenue is something that must be considered before a ban on beer sales could happen.

“ There’s no question that alcohol sales have an impact on us financially,” said Associate Athletic Director Randy Welniak. “We don’t have the luxury of some of these other institutions.”

John Welty, university president, also said the revenue would obviously have to be taken into consideration.

“ We’ve taken the steps to ending [beer] sales at the end of the half,” Welty said. “We’ll have to evaluate that and determine whether we need to take additional actions or not.”

Well, somebody has got to do something.

Executive Director of auxillary services, Debbie Astone, said the approximate amount the athletic department made from alcohol sales from all six of last season’s home games was nearly $140,000.

The lost revenue could be a big deal to the cash-strapped athletic department, but $140,000 isn’t worth making Fresno State fans look like a bunch of soccer hooligan’s year after year.

The success of Bulldogs football isn’t dependant on whether or not the school sells beer. The fans will still come to the games, and most likely they’ll buy sodas instead. Or those outrageously overpriced bottles of water.

And sideline reporters won’t have to go home and shampoo their hair at midnight.