[Football] Proposal to allow alcohol in the stands

[Milano]

I can go 45 minutes without alcohol. Most my week is alcohol free. I have a drink as part of whatever my weekend activity is though.

I do like to be able to enjoy my drink at a leisurely pace without being forced to either neck it or dump it because of some archaic law.

I can arrive at the theatre, a concert, the cinema, cricket, a quiz, literary talk or comedy show 10 minutes before it starts, purchase a drink and consume it whilst they are in progress. No reason why I shouldn’t be able to do this at football

None of those situations or scenarios are in any way like football though. Even in cricket you kind of know if something 'might' happen and can put your drink down. Now imagine a few thousand people had a pint in their hands when Baleba decided to have a go from 30 yards.......

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Ah yes! A good effort there!

He took chair luzzing as his inspiration then used a rubber floor mat to put his own spin on it and in doing so created a whole new "luzzing" sub-genre.

In the absence of chairs on the night it was heartening to see the station lay on a replacement luzz service

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Yeah, that's a good compromise. But, also, looking forward to seeing the lads wobbling to their seats with 4 pints balanced on top of each other.

I like to think I can drink responsibly these days, but as soon as I saw those lads selling beers in Rome, I somehow ended up juggling carlsbergs up the steps.

'Are you buying 4 drinks for your freinds?'

'Erm. Yeah. Why not, let's go with that'

That is the issue isnt it..... Cant trust people to do it sensibly with a compromise

 

[Marshy]

it's a terrible idea as far as i am concerned.

 

[A1X]

The point about allowing it as long as people promise not to "luzz" it and then impsoing bans if they do misses the point.

It was mentioned earlier, but take the England cricket team winning the world cup in 2019. The team made sure that Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, both practising Muslims, were well away from the celebrations before spraying champagne over each other. It's not good enough, in a similar scenario in the stands, to spray someone with beer and THEN act on it, that individual will already have suffered and will likely never come back, and nor will anyone else from their community.

Either football is a sport for everyone, or it isn't. If it is then putting alcohol in the stands is a complete anathema to that position. If it's only going to be a sport for middle-aged white men with overbearing wives who are more interested in drinking and throwing overpriced Fosters over everyone then it will die, and frankly it will thoroughly deserve to.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Ah yes! A good effort there!

He took chair luzzing as his inspiration then used a rubber floor mat to put his own spin on it and in doing so created a whole new "luzzing" sub-genre.

Creative and flexible. At times I don’t think football fans get the credit they deserve.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

Did you go to the Euro away games?

I didn't go to the away Euro games. Did the foreign fans luzz their beer, or just the Brighton fans?

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

So basically because you don't want it no one should have it? Seems reasonable and measured.

There’s plenty on here that have said they don’t want it … with lots of different reasons given. It’s my view that I don’t want alcohol in the stands to return. That’s my reasonable and measured approach to this.

Just to add … at Wolves on Saturday I was next to two blokes who had obviously been ‘on it’. When we ‘scored’ our offside goal he just went way over the top with celebrating (not realising it had been disallowed) and threw himself over the two people in front of them … via colliding with me and knocking me into the couple well into their 80s on my other side. The chap in front wasn’t happy and said when we score a goal that actually stands, he didn’t want a repeat performance from pissed up bloke… who when he’d picked himself up was facing me and screaming in my face resulting in spittle on my face. Really not very pleasant.

Just imagine if this chap was allowed beer in the stands. I wonder what might happen when we score

 

[Is it PotG?]

I didn't go to the away Euro games. Did the foreign fans luzz their beer, or just the Brighton fans?

The Brighton fans at Ajax ensured we ALL enjoyed a nice beer shampoo when we scored.

 

[Is it PotG?]

As above, a beer shampoo is inconvenient but those partial to red wine could cause havoc with a Malbec launch.

 

[Gazwag]

I didn't go to the away Euro games. Did the foreign fans luzz their beer, or just the Brighton fans?

Its very much an English phenomenon

I'm not really sure why people seem to "miss" it, since I first started to go to football in the early 80's I cannot ever remember ever seeing alcohol in the stands in those few year's before it was banned.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I didn't go to the away Euro games. Did the foreign fans luzz their beer, or just the Brighton fans?

Just Brighton. There was even an announcement made at one game asking for Brighton fans to stop.

Seems it’s just an English thing. Never seen it at German a games for example, and drinking in the srnads is allowed.

 

[Vicar!]

Definitely stay alcohol free... people will getting up every ten minutes to go and get a pint

They already are.

 

[Arthur]

Its very much an English phenomenon

I'm not really sure why people seem to "miss" it, since I first started to go to football in the early 80's I cannot ever remember ever seeing alcohol in the stands in those few year's before it was banned.

I'm one of those people. I can never recall alcohol being available to drink in the stand of a professional game of association football so I have nothing to miss so to speak.

However I wouldn't object to it being allowed again and I think @jackalbion suggestion on this thread is the right way to do it. Stop serving 5 minutes before kick off of each half and start again 5 minutes before half time/the end. If people could get a beer and drink it at their own pace during the game then surely that is better than necking one at half time in a few minutes. Would also help with the people leaving for half time earlier. If you knew you could bring your beer back to your seat then there is no reason to chip off a few minutes before the end of the half to beat the queues.

The people on this thread saying "if you can't go 45 minutes without a beer you have a problem" are completely missing the point. Of course people can go without but you wouldn't sit in a pub for 45 minutes without a drink if you didn't have to. Same applies for smoking, I'm sure most if not all smokers can go without for the entire duration of the game but they'll still nip out for a fag at half time. And no I'm not advocating allowing people to smoke in their seats before anyone accuses me of that.

As for the luzzing phenomenon then that could be easily prevented. Harsh penalties for people who do it. Those who want to avoid it completely then should avoid the north stand and they could make the family stand alcohol free in the seat.

And I don't buy people constantly going for a piss being an issue as people in front of me every game are constantly in and out of the bogs anyway.

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

I'm one of those people. I can never recall alcohol being available to drink in the stand of a professional game of association football so I have nothing to miss so to speak.

However I wouldn't object to it being allowed again and I think @jackalbion suggestion on this thread is the right way to do it. Stop serving 5 minutes before kick off of each half and start again 5 minutes before half time/the end. If people could get a beer and drink it at their own pace during the game then surely that is better than necking one at half time in a few minutes. Would also help with the people leaving for half time earlier. If you knew you could bring your beer back to your seat then there is no reason to chip off a few minutes before the end of the half to beat the queues.

The people on this thread saying "if you can't go 45 minutes without a beer you have a problem" are completely missing the point. Of course people can go without but you wouldn't sit in a pub for 45 minutes without a drink if you didn't have to. Same applies for smoking, I'm sure most if not all smokers can go without for the entire duration of the game but they'll still nip out for a fag at half time. And no I'm not advocating allowing people to smoke in their seats before anyone accuses me of that.

As for the luzzing phenomenon then that could be easily prevented. Harsh penalties for people who do it. Those who want to avoid it completely then should avoid the north stand and they could make the family stand alcohol free in the seat.

And I don't buy people constantly going for a piss being an issue as people in front of me every game are constantly in and out of the bogs anyway.

Where do people go to have their half time fag?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Where do people go to have their half time fag?

For sure they can nip out for a fag at half time. But they won't be nipping back in for the second half

 

[Jim in the West]

I went to a game in Italy a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to find that we could drink in the stands. As we’d been queuing outside in the heat for quite a bit, I had a beer, but we were pretty much the only people drinking in the stands. There were far more people with tiny paper cups of espresso…

 

[EliasTaproot]

No thanks, I'd have to seriously consider moving to the ****ing family stand if this came about. When I lived in the States I attended a lot of MLS games where boozing in the stands was allowed. Here is what I noticed:

1. Increased aggression when decisions go against us
2. Beer showers every goal, some pricks would buy new pints solely to luzz them as high as possible to hit people with, they were full on missiles and super dangerous
3. The steps and travel areas in the ground became mega congested, people would stand in the aisles constantly so as not to spill their drinks when all packed into their seats, caused carnage constantly and became dangerous when goals scored
4. Steward abuse was worse the longer the game went on and the more people drank

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

For sure they can nip out for a fag at half time. But they won't be nipping back in for the second half

Plenty of away ends have an outdoor bit where you can nip out for a fag.

There's a beer tent at Turf Moor, it's great (in that the queues are much shorter than at the serving hatch under the stand).

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

Plenty of away ends have an outdoor bit where you can nip out for a fag.

There's a beer tent at Turf Moor, it's great (in that the queues are much shorter than at the serving hatch under the stand).

Yes, but at the Amex?