Stop The Insanity!

If you’re from New Jersey or anywhere else, odds are you’ve had experiences like this:

There are few things in life I enjoy more than the experience of a live sporting event. Being there, live, at the stadium or arena rooting for my team is truly a special occasion. You get to scream and yell and boo and see things that the TV camera does not show you when watching from home. High-fiving the fans around you when your team scores a goal or a run or a touchdown is so cool. Saluting your victorious team is the pinnacle of it all. Heck even if your team loses it is still, to an extent, an enjoyable experience.
There is an epidemic that has been infesting sporting venues all over the world for decades that is spoiling every one’s good time and that is public drunkenness. Unfortunately, we’ve all experienced the unruly behavior of those people who have had “one too many”. It seems to be happening more frequently. I can pretty much guarantee you’d see someone drunk off their you know what at any live event. Alcohol mixed with testosterone mixed with stupidity is a recipe for disaster.
Fights in the stands among fans is becoming all too common. It used to be an anomaly. Now it’s like, oh, another fight in the stands *yawn*
It’s starting to spill out in to parking lots as was witnessed in Los Angeles when a fan of the San Fransisco Giants was beaten into a coma by Dodger fans. It’s even spreading beyond the grounds of the sporting venues. We recently saw Philadelphia Flyers Fans sucker punch New York Rangers fan outside of a cheese steak eatery after the NHL’s Winter Classic. I’m sure there’s hundreds of other stories that were not reported by the media/made their way to You Tube.

Some epidemics are incurable. This one is very much curable and it does not take a brilliant scientist or expert virologist to figure it out. The cure is STOP THE SALE OF ALCOHOL AT SPORTING EVENTS!!!!
Sorry for the caps, but, as you can see, I am passionate about this. Without going into specifics, I’ve had it with intoxicated behavior at sporting events and after sporting events. I understand the venues make a boatload of dough from the sale of beer but the safety and well being of the majority of the fans is more important. If the politicians are able to ban smoking at most public places, they should easily be able to ban beer sales from stadiums and arenas. If you’d like to watch a game and throw down a couple of “cold ones” go to a sports bar…that’s what they’re there for.
Of course, the majority of spectators at a game who drink stop at a beer or two and behave themselves quite nicely. In most cases I do not believe in penalizing the many for the egregious indiscretions of a few but this is one case where something has to be done and done right away.
I really don’t know what more evidence is needed to ban beer sales. Money isn’t everything. Owners of these teams make so much off tickets, parking, merchandising, and food/non-alcoholic beverages…I think they can absorb the lack of income. I am sad to say it will probably take someone dying from an alcohol related brawl for the powers that be to finally do what needs to be done. If you’re also sick and tired of drunk buffoons, email your congressperson and vent away. Maybe we should have an “Occupy Beer Stands” movement. If the people who have the power to do the right thing won’t, then maybe it’s time to take matters into our own hands.