"Aramark Suit Brings Sobering Changes" vol.8, iss.37, pg.1 by Sarah Zdesar

When you think of sporting events..major league baseball games, the NBA, and especially the NFL, one things seems to be synonymous with all of those. Alcohol consumption. I think we've all seen it or possibly been apart of the tailgaiting extravaganzas that have taken place before some of our teams big games..or not so big..in the case of my beloved Browns team, but there comes a point when a few drinks with friends becomes to much when someone decides to get behind the wheel of a car. That was the case last January when a $105 million judgment was levied against concessionaire giant Aramark regarding a 1999 case where a drunken fan that attended a New York Giants game at Giants Stadium, later caused a crash and paralyzed a 2-year-old girl.
With this very public incident and many other similar to this one that have happened over the years, it is a wonder that more actions haven't been taken in light of these recent events. Of course because of this and the fact that spectators become so unruly and out of hand when an excessive amount of alcohol is consumed. Now that is not to say that Aramark hasn't taken any precautionary methods to try to stop this raging epidemic at games. For instance a nonprofit ahocohol education program TEAM Coalition or Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management was set up to educate and train people on the proper selling of alcoholic products. Although Jill Pepper TEAMs executive director said "training your staff is the strongest deomsonsttation of commitment to alcohol management a facility can make because it takes th most time,effort and dedication." It still seems that giving this training to some of your employees is making a small dent in this large problem. Because the number of incidents involving alcohol-induced behavior decreased by 50% in 2005.
Hopefully with these trainings and other methods such as under cover agents and security, we can hopefully get this problem under control. Of course I have nothing against people having a few drinks and a good time while they are cheering their team to a victory, but the problem occurs when it is taken too far and innocent people become victims of someone elses carelessness.