Fans and players weren’t the only ones who took a hit when an ugly brawl broke out at the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers basketball game on November 19. Beer, and beer sales at sports events, also took plenty of heat. Predictably, one potential response from the NBA: a future league recommendation to cut off beer sales earlier in games. NBA commissioner David Stern said: "I think that’s an issue that we are going to examine with respect to alcohol service. I know that most of the companies…the beer companies do preach sort of responsible consumption and we have to be in position to assure that we aren’t doing anything that goes against that tenet. If that requires us to have a uniform policy on when beer sales are cut off, that’s something that’s going to be part of the mix. We have to look at everything." Pressures will likely mount for such a policy, especially since fans were throwing beer in the final seconds of the game.
Here are few sample reactions, notably from journalists, not public health advocates. "The hypocrisy of selling alcohol all night, then complaining when people behave like drunks is beyond comment. Who says you have to sell booze at sporting events? Show me one law. Show me one mandate." The NBA commissioner "surrenders credibility when he wags one hand at drunken behavior but hugs the beer companies’ money with the other." (Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press.) "Given the amount of money the beer companies have invested in the NBA and its television partners, I’ll believe" beer sales will be cut off earlier "when I see it. Still, cutting off beer sales at halftime would go a long way toward making sitting through a game tolerable." (Michael Wilbon, Washington Post) "The clubs sell tickets at exorbitant rates just so beer-swilling jerks can sit close to the players and, at the very least, make vile comments…. The NBA condones the heavy drinking…. How likely do you think it is that the league will insist beer sales be severely limited at its arenas, or discontinued altogether?" (Michael Ventre, MSNBC.com).
Policy change often follows such highly publicized incidents. For example, Colorado State University banned beer sales at its football stadium earlier this fall in the wake of one of the college student deaths. Video of fans throwing beer in Detroit will likely receive repeated airplay over the next weeks and months. Stay tuned for the fallout.