Posted on 06/03/2005 2:40:38 PM PDT by socal_parrot
The university and the Coliseum Commission agreed to end alcohol sales inside the Exposition Park stadium on USC game days, beginning with the Sept. 17 season opener against Arkansas.
The idea is to make the Coliseum "more family-friendly" when the Trojans take the field in a bid for an unprecedented third consecutive national championship, according to USC President Steven Sample.
In a letter informing season ticket holders of the change, Sample said he received dozens of letters from "irate Trojans who say they can't and they won't take their families to USC games anymore because drunken fans create a hostile and frightening environment."
"Longtime attendees at our games have witnessed an escalation in the rude behavior of fans, rudeness that is almost always exacerbated by alcohol consumption," Sample wrote.
He said the "deterioration in fan behavior is a nationwide trend, I might add, not a USC phenomenon."
"I recognize that this new policy represents a big change from what we're accustomed to, but most of not all of our peers have made this change, and we can too," Sample wrote.
USC was the last Pacific-10 Conference team to permit alcohol sales at its football stadium. The one member of the 11-team Big Ten Conference that does so is also planning on ending the practice, according to Sample.
Anyone who "possesses alcohol inside the stadium, who acts in a drunken or disorderly way or who uses threatening or obscene language will be evicted from the Coliseum and will permanently lose the privilege of buying tickets to our home football games," he warned.
Enclosed with the letter was a copy of the "Trojan Spirit Code" -- rules of conduct that Sample said were developed because of the "noticeable rise" in recent years of alcohol-related incidents.
The code reminds Trojans to "treat all fans, students, staff, players, coaches and officials in a respectful and courteous manner -- win or lose/home or away"; and "send a positive message to our opponents about USC, our teams, students and fans wherever USC is playing."
Have you ever been to the LA Coliseum for a night game? The neighborhood is a hostile and frightening environment
In ten years I have never seen an incident at an SC game. Now in the adjacent areas after is a total different ball game
Weren't they the only NCAA venue that still sold beer during NCAA events?
Anyway, it's always cheaper to bring and drink your own. I think every college student knows that.
A USC grad friend of mine who is a season ticket holder said it has been getting more rowdy lately. I guess that's what happens when you start drawing more people.
All this is going to do is make people drink heavily before the game , and make them try and sneak in booze in their pants etc..
The people who get drunk and act like idiots will still get drunk and act like idiots. It won`t change a thing.
Best thing to do is sell watered down beer and hire more security people with the profits.
They could also just create a "family section" in the stadium. But that would be way too difficult......(sigh).
Jeeves wouldn't do it. Jeeves would never work for a married man.
You must have missed a lot of games then. Last year, I witnessed some drunken Trojans spitting and then dumping beer on a woman seated one row up because she was cheering for the other team. Then the guy started getting in her face and a few surrounding fans had to restrain him. Believe me, the woman did nothing wrong. 3 or 4 guys were ejected form my area at different times during the game for drunken and obnoxious behavior.
I personally spoke to about a dozen other people who witnessed the same type of thing at the game.
(For the record, I'm not saying that Trojans are obnoxious fans...every school has its share of jerks, but beer absolutely contributed to these events at the game, and it's happened nearly every time I've gone to an SC game.)
Of course, a lot can change in 25 years.
But then again, that was back in the late 50s/ early 60s, and even drunks behaved like gentlemen --- for the most part.
I really don't think it is the booze. It is the coarsening of culture.
I think you might be looking through a little bit of rose-colored glass there. I didn't attend sporting events in the 1950s but my father did, and even in little old Ohio he saw some pretty nasty stuff in the stands. I don't think drunks ever acted like gentlemen for the most part.
Lets put it this way. My Dad had no problem with taking his 8-year old son to a Steeler game in the 1950s. Yes, it was full of "rough men", drinking. But I don't recall him having to explane anything they said in front of me.
Our family had a great time at USC, despite the outcome. I guess y'all will now do what the rest of us do - tape ziplocks full of mixee of choice to your leg. War Damn Eagle and Fight On!
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