County Board approved a sweeping ban barring fans from bringing beer, liquor or soda into County Stadium
On March 6, 1961, the County Board approved a sweeping ban barring fans from bringing beer, liquor or soda into County Stadium. The penalty for violating the ordinance: a $5 to $500 fine or up to 90 days in jail.
Some in Milwaukee refused to take the carry-in ban lying down. A group calling itself the Committee for Beverage Carry-Ins at County Stadium launched “Operation Six-Pack,” a campaign to repeal the ordinance. Within a couple of weeks, organizers had collected 87,000 signatures calling for repeal.
Efforts to get a temporary restraining order to halt enacting the ordinance failed, as did an attempt to get the County Board to repeal it. It didn’t help, The Milwaukee Journal reported on April 20, 1961, that members of “Operation Six-Pack” reportedly had taken to calling county supervisors “at all hours of the night” to protest the ban.
In June, Circuit Judge Ronold A. Dreschler upheld the ban, saying: “The necessity of eliminating the danger (of rowdy fans throwing bottles onto the field and in the stands) … overrides the difference in costs of the beverages.”
Dreschler also ruled, according to The Journal’s June 19 story, “that carrying in alcoholic beverages was not an inherent right of baseball fans.” (Cleary, the judge had never been tailgating.)
The carry-in ban could have been a factor in the Braves’ dramatic attendance decline in 1961, a 26% drop, to 1.1 million fans. But don’t rule out that the team fell from second place in 1960 to fourth in the eight-team National League in 1961.
At the start of the 1962 season, with fans still stewing over the carry-in ban, the Braves sought a boost in the price of beer they were selling inside County Stadium — from 30 cents to 35 cents for a 12-ounce bottle of Milwaukee-brewed beer. William Eberle, Braves business manager said that the ballclub, if it got the price increase, wouldn’t object to a repeal of the carry-in ban. Besides, the team suggested, the ban was hurting attendance.
That just made the County Board angrier.
“How can the Braves have the gall to come in and make a statement like that when they appeared time after time to oppose bringing in beer?” County Supervisor Marty Larsen shouted, according to a story on the meeting in the April 6, 1962, Milwaukee Journal. “And you call that good public relations.”
The County Board rejected the Braves’ nickel-a-beer increase, but the door had been opened. On June 5, 1962, the County Board finally relented, and repealed the carry-in ban.
To celebrate, the Committee for Beverage Carry-Ins at County Stadium staged a victory party for repeal, offering fans a free bus ride to the ballpark — and a six-pack of beer — for the Braves’ return to Milwaukee on June 8.
Unfortunately, the weather ruined the party. Fewer than 2,500 people showed up to see the Braves play the Pirates while hoisting their own beer, but the game was rained out.
Carry-ins were allowed for the rest of the Braves’ stay in Milwaukee. But by the time the Milwaukee Brewers arrived in 1970, the carry-in ban was back in effect.
this article was seen in the Milwaukee Journal
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