Alcohol at Professional Sporting Events

Everyone knows that alcohol is one of the top sources of income at almost all professional sporting events. All the income that comes from alcohol sales outweighs the effects that alcohol can have. Distributors turn the other cheek when it comes to alcohol, because they would have a lot of trouble making a profit without the sales. My question here is, is this appropriate? Is it right for distributors to forget about the possible effects of alcohol to help them make a decent profit?

Everyone understands the effect alcohol can have on people, just some of the distributors decide not to pay attention to these effects because the money is flowing in for them. The first and biggest problem with alcohol is driving. Drinking and driving, is not only absolutely stupid, but it is done way too often. When alcohol is distributed at a sporting event, people have more motive to drink, and afterwards will have to drive home. People tend to drink more because they feel they will have more fun and enjoy the game more if they are drunk. Now this may be true for some people, but having to drive home drunk is something that no one should ever do. It puts not only yourself at risk, but everyone that you pass on your way home.

A second effect caused by the consumption of alcohol is violence. People tend to get a little more violent and tend to get the bad boy syndrome after they have had a few drinks. Anyone that has had a few drink starts to feel like they are unbeatable, and at a sporting event with clashing fans that's really not a good thing. If you have two people cheering for opposite teams with a few drinks in them the chance of a fight breaking out is very high. I attended a Buffalo Sabres playoff game about a year ago where I witnessed three different fights between clashing fans. Something tells me that alcohol played a little part, but I can only assume.

Now sporting arenas all usually have some sort of limit on the amount of beers you can purchase per hour, but can they really control that? First of all if you get turned down at the station near where you sit, what stops you from taking a little walk to another station? This type of control policy just isn't working, and I have a feeling it's not working on purpose. If you act like you are limiting beer sales, but turning the other cheek when it comes to the limit you are obviously going to make a little extra. I think that the way to fix this is to have people get a card before they enter the arena if they are planning on drinking. Every time they go to buy a drink, their card is time stamped. This way the limit on the amount of alcohol consumed would actually be controlled. I would love to see sporting events where alcohol was outlawed, but I need to be realistic. Like I said before alcohol is a major source of income, and would be devastating to profits if it were completely taken away.

Alcohol sales at sporting events are beginning to get out of control. Without a working limit policy more people are consuming more alcohol. These people are either driving home or getting into fights. These are two things that there is no need for in the world. First of all drinking and driving puts everyone involved at risk, and fights always carry risk. Arenas serving alcohol need to come up with better policies to limit alcohol sales, such as time cards.