Most hockey teams already serve booze at games.
***image1***
Some things are best served on ice.
Things like hockey or beer. Or, better yet, hockey
and
beer.
The combination of suds and slapshots is a natural fit for most people who have ever been to a hockey game (or Canada), but the prospect of both coexisting at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center is getting a cold shoulder from City Hall.
As reported in other media outlets this week, the Santa Fe City Council is scheduled to hear a proposal at its Oct. 11 meeting that would allow Santa Fe Brewing Company to sell beer at Santa Fe Roadrunners hockey games held at GC3.
The proposal has already been met with stiff resistance from the likes of GC3 Director Liz Roybal and Police Chief Eric Johnson.
"I think [the proposal] is just not good for a city facility," Johnson says. "We've seen other
examples in the past where security just wasn't adequate and when you add alcohol to the mix it just makes for a bad situation."
But preventing alcohol sales at Roadrunners games isn't a guarantee that fans won't drink. Jill Pepper, executive director of Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (a Virginia-based company whose clients include Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL), says venues that ban alcohol from sporting events are often more susceptible to problems. "It's better to serve and serve responsibly," Pepper says. "A ban on alcohol just encourages drinking outside of the venue and a generally unmonitored environment where it's difficult to gauge where and how much alcohol is being consumed by whom."
Furthermore, most teams in the North American Hockey League (of which the Roadrunners is a member) already sell alcohol at home games, including every team in the
***image2***
league's South Division. Every team, that is, except the Roadrunners.
"I don't think what we're asking for is anything out of line or excessive," Arch Ecker, the team's director of business operations, says. "It's something that other communities have gone through and dealt with without any bad repercussions."
One of the Santa Fe squad's divisional foes, the Alaska Avalanche, plays its home games at the Wasilla (Alaska) Multi-Use Sports Complex, a municipal center similar to the GC3. Jamie Smith, marketing director for the Avalanche, says the beer operations at that complex have always gone down smoothly with city government.
"Since the arena has been going, there has been beer sold at our games," Smith says. "We've got a local vendor that we use and they go through the city. We've never had any problems. Not at all."
Ecker-who plans to present the council proposal on Oct. 11 with Brian Lock, Santa Fe Brewing president-says the team is merely trying to supply a demand of its fans.
"It's pretty much the fabric of American pastimes," Ecker says. "You go to the ballgame, you have a bag of peanuts and a beer. The consumption of alcohol is certainly not tantamount to a program's success, but at the same time it's something a lot of our fans said was missing from the experience."
A lot of fans are missing the experience altogether. The proposal is also intended to improve the team's lagging attendance figures.
"I think it could only help with the promotion of the team and getting more people out to support them," Lock says. "I think our intention is just to promote one of the only semipro teams that we have in Santa Fe and to get people interested in attending games and have the opportunity to have a beer when they're there."
If the City Council approves the request, beer sales could be in place by Oct. 20, when the Roadrunners host the Avalanche for a two-game homestand. But that's a big "if." Lock and Ecker face an uphill battle in getting their proposal approved.
"We've seen problems in the past at the Chavez Center with not enough security," Johnson says. "I'm opposed to their proposal as it stands now. They would have to significantly increase their security-not only for the interior of the building but out in the parking lot as well-before I would consider otherwise."
Lock and Ecker plan to propose hiring additional security, limiting fans to three beers apiece, restricting all alcohol consumption to a barricaded beer garden and halting all beer sales before the third period of games.
"We don't want to be a burden on the police department or anyone else," Ecker says. "We want to work in conjunction with everyone along the line and make it as seamless and harmless as possible."
But many city councilors are wary of the proposal. Councilor Karen Heldmeyer says the council will likely seek clarification at the Oct. 11 meeting about the city's parameters surrounding alcohol sales at municipal facilities. And support from the GC3 staff, if not from the police chief, wouldn't hurt Lock and Ecker's cause either.
"Technically they wouldn't need [approval from GC3 staff]," Heldmeyer says, "but I think that would certainly be an obstacle in getting it approved."
They don't have it. Roybal wrote a statement voicing opposition to the proposal after discussing the matter with her staff.
"Although we are in great support of the Roadrunners, we just felt it would not be in the best interest of the community center to have alcohol here," Roybal says. "I would definitely support [the proposal] if it was in a sole-purpose facility such as a hockey arena, but we're a family-oriented, multi-use facility."
Ecker says he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community at large and is still hopeful that he can assuage any concerns people may have.
"This isn't a case of trying to get people schnockered so they can get crazy at the games," Ecker says. "It's not about that. We're just trying to provide a service for our clients. I think if it's handled responsibly, as we intend to do, it could be a good thing."
