A Bee article by Doug Hoagland yesterday reported that a "ban on booze during Fresno State football games doesn't apply to everyone. Fans in the 23 skyboxes at Bulldog Stadium still can drink."
This story was one of the most viewed articles yesterday on the Bee's Web site. In today's paper, we wrote an editorial and Bill McEwen wrote a column saying that the same rules should apply to everyone.
What do you think? Does it make sense to allow the exception for skyboxes? Or is Fresno State in the wrong on this?
Skybox booze: Right or wrong?
5 Comments
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Isn't the no-booze policy a WAC or NCCA rule? Therefore FSU does not get to decide if parts of the stadium do or don't apply? Right?
It sounds like class division, to me. If you are upper class and can afford a skybox, then you can drink. If you are lower class and pay for the cheap seats, no booze for you, peasant.
Of course, the booze is wrong in the boxes. We must surely expect our leaders to follow their own rules. Elitism is against all precepts of our democracy, especially out west here. If those boxes are necessary to pay for football, maybe we should take a hard look at football, not the boxes.
Is the argument about not drinking or who gets to? Any time you pay more money for something than someone else, you expect more perks: better view, better service. The people who pay the tens of thousands of dollars for the skyboxes get more than the fans in the stadium. It's not that big of a deal. And no, I do not own a skybox. I sit in the stadium! If you really want to drink, have it in the parking lot, or get yourself invited to a skybox. It's only 6 games a year!
When I first read this, my first thought was "How stupid do you have to be to not see the bad possibilities in this policy?"
Then I realized it was Fresno State.
Ah. Well. Now I see what was more important. The bottom dollar in selling skybox tickets. Doesn't matter if this sets a bad example for kids at ALL age levels, including adults. Doesn't matter if ANYONE dies from alcohol consumption.
Now I get it. Fresno State's public ban on liquor was only a token gesture. A falsehood. A lie. Just so they could keep bringing people to buy skybox tickets.
I'm glad to see they make skybox customers bring their alcohol in 2 days before a game. God knows what kind of uproar we would have if people KNEW they had liquor up there.
Wait a minute...
Who cares if this is an affront to all parents who have lost their children to alcohol? Who cares if this defies all common sense and reason in the face of alcohol-related deaths? Who cares if this makes CSUF look like a double standard setting mockery?
But then ... it wouldn't necessarily digress from their NORMAL standard operating procedure.
How inept do you have to be to see the bad PR rolling like an A-train right at them? What were they thinking? That they WOULDN'T have this LEAK somehow?
Oh, wait ... They weren't.