For years now at the Milwaukee baseball stadium, there have been alcohol serving limits as well as guidelines implemented to ensure that fans are not overserved and ensure for a better game viewing experience for everyone. These such limits & guidelines are and have been enforced to the point where “sting” operations have been happening where employees (ahem) long-standing employees get fired if they are found breaking certain rules.
These guidelines apply to every person selling alcohol at the ballpark (save for “Fridays” restaurant where their alcohol serving guidelines are not included in this discussion) persons which not only include the in-seat vendors, but concession stand attendants; servers; runners; everyone! Guidelines that include but are not limited to, a customer cannot leave a transaction with more than 2 alcoholic beverages in their possession; during the “cutoff out” (last out in the bottom of the 7th inning) an alcohol transaction that has already been STARTED can be finished but no new alcohol transactions may begin after that*; all alcoholic beverages in cans must be opened prior to being served to the customer; customers showing signs of impairment shall not be served any alcohol.
Once again, constant enforcement as well as constant training continues to happen to ensure those aforementioned guidelines are not violated. Many people who either vend beer there or serve alcohol at a concession stand there have been doing it for decades and are unionized at that! Again, termination of employment has and continues to be a form of disciplinary action for any violators.
But then you get the non-profit people who come in and serve beer, drinks (as well as non-alcohol items) to make money for their respective groups (whether it be hockey clubs, churches, gymnastics, etc.). These such groups are assigned to work in certain concession stands scattered throughout the stadium while some of the proceeds naturally will go towards their respective organizations. These such workers are known as paid volunteers which they do get a wage (said not to be much) for their labor as they are rightfully entitled to. Where the problem lies, is that these types of workers may feel that since they are just doing this on a voluntary basis (whether if they’re being required by their organizations or not) that they have little disincentive to go ahead and break some of the alcohol serving rules considering that if one is found in violation, all that would happen is that they “just won’t be allowed to work at the stadium again”. Think about it, a person possibly being required by their organization to volunteer to serve alcohol at the stadium can simply just “get out of it” by breaking a rule (not breaking a law or they’d risk being cited by the Milwaukee Police Dept). Regardless, what disincentive there IS for a non-profit worker who generally isn’t working there all that much, gets paid little and possibly is having their arm twisted to volunteer who breaks an alcohol serving rule? Answer: They can’t volunteer there anymore, wow! What is worse, that if an incident were to occur, say, an unopened can of beer was served and it got tossed by someone to the field of play and hit a player, then it would be very likely that all beers from cans must start to be poured into cups (so much for your koozies) or maybe beer will then be served in a different container (say a plastic bottle with a said higher overhead) would be used. It could also lead indirectly to costing other people’s beer serving jobs as well.
Unfortunately and indeed, these non-profit volunteers have been constantly witnessed by in-seat vendors (as they are returning from the seats to replenish their beer) breaking the rules! Whether it’s continuing to sell after the “cutoff out”; selling more than 2 beers per person; not opening cans; or whatever. These organizations feel that every last beer/drink they sell will get more money into their organization’s coffers at the mere expense of just having one of their easily replaceable volunteers be told they can’t volunteer at the stadium anymore. With so many entities involved, the baseball team; the league; the concessionaire; the volunteer groups; the fans; or the in-seat beer vendors among others, it’s seems sad to think the reality that the beer vendors will suffer the most if more even safer precautions were to be put into place (such as a time consuming practice of pouring beers into cups) that could hurt their sales commissions.
Above all, Drinks In The Seats asks when you’re at a sports facility and if In-Seat Beer Vendors are not your preferred group at the time to get your alcohol from for whatever the reason, then go to a concession stand with actual employees and not non-profit volunteers. At the Milwaukee baseball stadium, the vendors and the EMPLOYED Concession Stand Attendants are all union, many have worked there for decades. They know to obey the rules to avoid the notion of losing their long term investment there and none of them want to be put on any serving restrictions because a non-profit person thinks he/she could break the rules with the consequence of simply being told they don’t have to do this anymore!
*Alcohol can still be available in certain places of the stadium but cannot be taken out into the general seating area. Check for available areas