Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993 TAG: 9305030069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But if you press him on whether it's the quality of the baseball or the quality of the beverages that keeps him coming back to the park, he can hardly make a distinction.
"It's live ball and cold beer," Ostrom says.
Professional sporting events and beer are a natural mixer.
From hot summer stock car races to frigid winter hockey games, professional sports promoters in the Roanoke Valley rely on the availability of beer to fill seats with fans who come as much for the atmosphere as they do for the event. No one in the valley knows that better than Whitey Taylor, the stock car promoter who has struggled through two summers to sell racing at Roanoke's Victory Stadium.
Taylor's problem: He can't sell beer at the stadium, and the city prohibits race fans from bringing ice chests filled with their own suds into the stands.
"That rule alone I attribute to us losing half of our attendance," Taylor said.
The lesson isn't lost on John Gagnon, who hopes to start a minor-league hockey team in the Roanoke Valley. He signed a two-year lease to use the Roanoke Civic Center as home ice a month after the civic center commission decided beer could be sold in the 8,363-seat arena.
The change in the civic center's beer policy - which applies to all professional sporting events at the arena - may not have sealed the deal, but it helped.
Gagnon said he would probably have decided to locate his team in Roanoke regardless of whether the civic center offered beer to thirsty fans, but the prospect seemed as natural to him as selling popcorn at a movie theater.
"Lots of hockey fans love to go to a game and drink beer," Gagnon said. "Beer and hockey just go together."
As a businessman with one eye on the ice and another on the bottom line, Gagnon believes the commission's decision made financial sense as well.
The civic center commission will keep all of the concession proceeds from the 32 home hockey games; Gagnon will pocket all the ticket revenue.
If attendance is good, and the beer is tapped often, there could be enough profit to go around.
"We definitely expect to sell more concession items per fan with the addition of beer sales," commission Chairman Vern Danielson said. The potential for more money at the concession stand allowed the commission to offer Gagnon the civic center at a reduced price, he said.
Danielson would not say what kind of financial return the commission anticipates from the beer sales. But if Roanoke Valley hockey fans of past years are any indication, the response should be substantial.
During the eight years that former Roanoke Rebels owner Henry Brabham had his hockey franchise, more than half of all money plunked down by fans at the LancerLot's concession stands went to purchase beer, he said.
Brabham established a family section in the LancerLot where no drinking was allowed, but he said its main purpose was to prevent disruptions rather than increase attendance from those who chose not to drink.
"It was like separating church groups," Brabham said. "I didn't see where it helped attendance that much, but it prevented a lot of trouble."
Brabham said he cut off beer sales in the third period of games at the LancerLot after having some trouble with fans who drank too much. But Brabham said he never considered discontinuing beer sales at the LancerLot because he thought it was very important to attendance and concessions revenue, which helped keep the team alive financially.
Beer could also float attendance at Whitey Taylor's Franklin County Speedway in Callaway.
"We don't encourage that fans drink, but we don't check them," Taylor said, referring to the steady stream of ice chests that make their way into the bleachers at a typical racing event.
Taylor said speedway officials do not restrict fans' drinking unless they disturb other patrons or they are seen drinking straight from a labeled can or bottle.
"When I see someone drinking from a cup, I just assume it's iced tea or something," said Ron Flint, whose security firm is in charge of crowd control at the speedway. "I can't see alcohol through a cup."
Taylor says the ease with which patrons can discreetly drink at the Franklin County Speedway is one reason attendance at races has remained strong there.
Taylor said he believes the city of Roanoke could make money and increase his ticket sales by allowing city caterers to sell beer at Victory Stadium.
Many fans at a Salem Bucs game last week said they were not lured to the game by what was happening on the field, but by the atmosphere in the stands. Others confessed to a bizarre "foul-weather fan" syndrome that they say attracts them to the park on particularly cold nights, or when the Bucs are in dismal losing streaks.
The reason: shorter lines at the beer counter.
"We're definitely here for the beer," said 23-year-old Steven Ison of Roanoke. Ison said he and three friends opted for the ballpark as a change from the ordinary bar scene. Ison and his friends said they enjoyed the baseball, but wouldn't have considered going to the park unless they were allowed to drink beer there.
"I'm sure not going to sit here and sip Pepsi," Ison said.
by CNB