Since last season, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has allowed Rangers Ballpark at Arlington sell wine, but only in specific parts of the park. Your seat’s in the upper deck? Kick rocks, wino, and drink at home. Now Rangers officials are trying to change all that. From the “Needlessly Complicated” file:
“You can buy beer at pretty much any concession area in the ballpark. There are very few locations you can buy wine,” said Rick George, the Rangers business operations president. “We want to make it more convenient for the fan so they can buy it wherever their seat location is.”
Besides making red and white wines more accessible, the team is working with state lawmakers to change the rules so that fans will be able to carry their drinks — whether beer, wine or mixed alcohol beverages — from one level to another.
The ballpark’s liquor permits currently restrict where certain beverages can be purchased and consumed, meaning a fan can’t buy a beer on the concourse level and then take the escalator to the upper level with it.
“It’s a portability issue. We want to be able to allow our fans to bring the beverage of their choice on different concourses,” said George, adding that other stadiums don’t face those restrictions. “People get to an escalator and then the usher says you can’t bring that up here so they will try to chug it.”
The club needs to collect 22,000 signatures by early May before the Arlington City Council will approve holding a local option election on whether to allow wine across the park. CBS-DFW caught up with a seemingly random fan to ask him his thoughts.
“It doesn’t degenerate into a situation where people are getting beer spilled on them and stuff like that that sometimes happens at Cowboys games,” said Skip French who’s attended games at the ballpark and Cowboys Stadium. “I’m not opposed if they give them extra access to liquor as long as they control people.”
