Proposal to Sell Beer at New Gulls Stadium Leads to Resignation

Dr. A. DeeWayne Jones this week resigned as president of a committee that is trying to find a stadium site in Camarillo for the Ventura County Gulls, a minor league baseball team. Jones quit, in part, because he believes beer should not be sold at a Camarillo stadium, he said.

Jones said that he believes the Gulls will be an asset to the community. It would not, however, be fair for him to remain as president of the Community Stadium Assn. and argue against the sale of alcoholic beverages at Gulls games, he said.

The Class-A California League team will play this season at Ventura College. Alcohol will not be served at the college facility, but team owners hope to offer beer concessions if the team moves to Camarillo.

The non-profit Community Stadium Assn., with Jim Jevins acting as interim president, is searching for a Camarillo site for the Gulls to move to in 1987. Jones said the group has located two potential parcels: 20-acre Freedom Park and a 15-acre piece of land north of Freedom Park.

“The baseball folk tell me that, economically, a team can’t make it without beer,” Jones said. “I’m saying that I firmly believe in a family-type stadium that can be used by everybody, and that one of the problems we have today in sports stadiums is the drinking of alcoholic beverages. It’s a security problem, a health problem.

“I attend a lot of sports events, and sometimes I go away wishing I hadn’t gone because of the rowdyism, the vulgarity. Children shouldn’t be exposed to this.”

Jones said he never argued about the sale of beer with Gulls owners Ken McMullen, Jim Colborn and Jim Biby, but “I think that was coming soon,” he said.

Biby, the Gulls’ general manager, said the team’s “economic preference” is to have beer served at the stadium. The sales would be “very controlled,” he said.

“Is it an absolute necessity?” Biby said. “Probably not. But not having beer means you have to have an excellent live gate every day to compensate for the loss of concessions. But it is possible. In other words, if we were to draw some fantastic figure, say 200,000 people, we don’t need beer. It’s just that simple.”

The California League’s all-time attendance record for one season is 154,547. Fresno drew 83,351 fans last season to lead the league in attendance.

Bill Thompson, general manager of the Fresno Giants, said beer sales accounted for 35% of the team’s $50,000 in concession revenue last season. “Beer and baseball are sort of synonymous,” he said.

Biby said he and his partners hope to provide a family atmosphere at the Gulls’ home games.

“The thing that I don’t want anybody ever to lose is--whether there’s beer there or not--we are putting ourselves in the position of guaranteeing good family atmosphere,” he said. “We’re not going to let something happen that isn’t going to be acceptable to a family.

“My boy’s going to be a bat boy. I don’t want him associating with a bunch of guys who can’t handle beer. But the guy who sits down and has a hot dog and a beer, and he enjoys the ballgame, I want to provide that for him,” Biby said.

Said Jones: “Maybe I’m overreacting, but I have a strong personal commitment to healthy living, and I resent the fact that alcohol has moved into the sports arena to try to make it legitimate.

“When I think of sports, I think of participating to help make our bodies healthier. I can’t see how alcohol does that at all.”