Padres Limit Alcohol Sales : Ounce of Prevention at Stadium After 7th Inning

It won’t be Miller time for San Diego Padres fans after the seventh inning of Thursday’s game with the Montreal Expos.

To maintain the family atmosphere at ballgames, the Padres announced Tuesday that beer sales at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium will halt after seven innings.

“This is a change we have been studying for some time,” Padres President Ballard Smith said in a statement announcing the prohibition. “The move is in line with our continuing efforts to reduce alcohol-related incidents during games, and in the parking lots and on the roads after the games.”

The Padres made the decision, which will cost the club more than $100,000 a year in concession earnings, despite fan behavior that one club executive described as “rather mild.” And an executive with the company that operates the concessions at the stadium said Tuesday he had doubts whether the ban would have any effect on fans’ demeanor.

“We didn’t feel that beer sales after the seventh inning were a major contributor to the problem,” said George Karetas, vice president of Service America, the stadium concessionaire. “As a result, we didn’t feel cutting beer sales off after the seventh inning would solve the problem.”

About 8% of stadium beer sales are made after the seventh inning, he said.

Nonetheless, Service America endorsed the Padres’ decision, Karetas said.

“We don’t have a major problem at the stadium, but, more importantly, we don’t want to have a major problem at the stadium,” he said. “Padre games are strictly intended for family entertainment and that’s the bottom line. It’s not a local bar.”

In cutting off late-inning beer sales, the Padres are joining a trend that has spread across the major leagues. No beer is sold in Dodger Stadium after the eighth inning, for instance, and about a dozen teams have implemented similar rules, according to Dick Freeman, Padre vice president for administration.

The step is the latest in a quiet crackdown on beer guzzling undertaken by the club. Last year, the Padres barred fans from bringing beverage containers into the stadium, cutting alcohol-related incidents and arrests by more than half, the club said.

Service America, meanwhile, has kept tight constraints on beer sales, Karetas said. Unlike other stadiums, there are no hawkers peddling beer in the stands in San Diego, he said. The largest cup of beer on sale holds 24 ounces, not the 42-ounce jumbo sold in some stadiums. Also, sales of hard liquor are restricted to the Stadium Club, Sports Club and portions of the stadium press level, under the careful watch of bartenders and security officers, Karetas said.

In those areas, sales of alcoholic beverages will continue after the seventh inning, despite the prohibition throughout the rest of the stadium.

“The sale in those areas is more strictly controlled,” Karetas explained.

Officials said the ban will be in effect no matter how long an extra-inning game runs. It also covers wine sold at ballpark concessions.

Fan reaction was negative when news of the ban reached the Pennant, a sports-oriented bar in Mission Beach.

“There were a few people who couldn’t believe what they were saying,” said bar manager Lonnie Barland. “I think it might hurt attendance a little bit.”

Barland said she could not see the need for action against stadium beer drinkers. “For as many people as go to games, there are few incidents,” she said. “You have a few fans that are just obnoxious, and they probably would be obnoxious just coming into a bar.”

Nearly 75% of fans surveyed at the stadium this summer supported the concept of a late-inning beer sales ban, however, the Padres said.

Elten Schiller, Padres’ senior vice president of business operations, acknowledged that Padre fans’ behavior has been “rather mild.” The worst incident he could recall at the stadium was when several fans jumped onto the field during an after-game concert a decade ago.

But club officials said an ounce --or 24 ounces--of prevention were worth the cure. “We feel this action will inconvenience very few people, and assure that more people will be leaving the ball park sober and driving home safely,” Smith said.