Angels’ New Family Section Will Ban Alcohol and Discourage Profanity

There are many baseball fans who consider a few beers and some choice words for the umpires to be time-honored traditions that are as much a part of the game as bats and gloves. An increasing number of fans, however, are asking for the chance to enjoy the game in the peace of an alcohol- and obscenity-free environment.

In response to those requests, the Angels announced Friday that they will open a 2,615-seat family section in left field April 27 against Milwaukee. The reserved field-level seats, priced at $7, will have “No Alcohol” signs posted and will be controlled by specially trained ushers. Profanity will be discouraged.

The same seats have sold for $7 since 1986, when prices for all seats in the stadium were raised $1. There will be no discount for children.

“The Angels family section is a concept requested by the fans in recent years who wanted an alcohol-free area that provided a family-type atmosphere,” said John Hays, the Angels’ senior vice president for marketing. “This was not established because of increased problems, but because the numbers of fans asking for such an area has increased.”

There are at least five other major league stadiums that have experimented with similar sections--the Dodgers have not sold beer in the outfield pavilions for a number of years--but the program at Anaheim Stadium may be the most comprehensive. Family-section tickets will clearly indicate that the area is to be alcohol-free, and ushers will screen ticket-holders at each entry to the section.

“The city of Anaheim is, of course, enthusiastic about the idea,” Anaheim Mayor Ben Bay said. “The council liked the idea the minute they heard it. Our objective is to have Anaheim Stadium become the best place in America to watch a baseball game.”

Angel owner Gene Autry also predicted that the section would be a boon for the franchise and “one more feather in the cap of the city and the Angels.”

“I can understand that some families with young children might object to some of the language they hear,” Autry said. “And I’ve heard complaints myself about people who were high on beer and spraying it around. I think this section is a very good idea.”

The City of Anaheim, with fiscal help from corporate sponsor Carnation, will train and assign additional personnel to the area, but Hays said the emphasis will be on courtesy, not force.

“We’re not taking an iron-fist approach here,” he said. “Courtesy will be the byword. We want to make this a pleasant environment for everyone.”

Last year, the Angels instituted a program designed to reduce alcohol-related problems. They reduced the size of beer cups, limited beer purchases to two per customer, adopted provisions to discontinue beer sales in certain areas if problems arose and trained employees how to identify and handle potential troublemakers.

Hays said he doesn’t anticipate any problems with the new section, but conceded that sold-out games would present the greatest likelihood of trouble. If family section tickets are the only ones available, fans will be faced with obeying the rules or staying home.

“Twenty-six hundred seats is a ton of seats,” Hays said. “This is new idea, and it will be a while before fans become aware of the section. There’ll be games when we have as few as a hundred out there and as many 2,600 the next. I don’t think we’ll be faced with that (sell-out) situation more than seven or eight times a year.”

The Angels chose the left-field, field-level seats because they were isolated and therefore easier to police. Also, most of the field-level seats between the foul poles have been purchased by season-ticket holders.