MILWAUKEE — You can still buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, but the seventh-inning stretch will once again represent last call for a cold one for Brewers fans.
After extending alcohol sales until the end of the eighth for most of the month of April on a trial basis, the Brewers have decided to revert to their former policy. Alcohol sales will be cut off at the end of the seventh inning starting with Monday night’s series opener against the Dodgers at American Family Field.
“We’ve got two homestands under our belts and there have not been any serious issues with general behavior related to the extended sales,” club spokesperson Tyler Barnes said. “But what we’ve found is that the amount of time we’ve extended it by averages it out to 15 minutes extra. Because it’s late in the game, the sale of alcohol and all concessions drops off a cliff once you get to the eighth inning. The amount of sales we were experiencing was just not significant.”
With that data showing the vast majority of alcohol sales still occur prior to the eighth inning, the club is opting to err on the side of caution and practicality. The Brewers are home all week against the Dodgers from Monday-Wednesday, and then host the Royals from Friday-Sunday before hitting the road again.
The decision to extend alcohol sales on a trial basis came during the opening homestand, after the Brewers quietly experimented with an extra inning of sales during the final two games of the home-opening series against the Mets. At the time, president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said the team would collect data and then revisit the decision at some later date.
“I’m comfortable that our people are going to be monitoring the situation well and making sure that people who shouldn’t be served won’t be served, regardless of what inning it is,” Schlesinger said then. “The vast majority of fans behave responsibly. In fact, I will tell you because I get the data, that the number of incidents of misbehavior with alcohol are down. I think people have more sensitivity and awareness.
“But again, if we see some concerns, safety is No. 1 and we’ll revisit it. If it turns out that this is causing an issue or we feel that it might cause an issue, then we’ll revert to what we have done previously.”
