Family-Section Seating Strikes Out in Anaheim : Baseball: Low demand is among factors cited for eliminating the special alcohol-free area at the stadium.

When Les Johnson of Moreno Valley took his five children to Angels’ games, he bought tickets in Anaheim Stadium’s family section, where alcohol wasn’t sold or permitted to be brought to the seats.

“We thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “We didn’t have to have beer spilled on us and under the seats and there were no loud, obnoxious people around us. It was a lot better than sitting in the bleachers.”

That option won’t be available to Johnson and other fans when the Angels open their season Tuesday. The 2,600-seat family section, opened in 1987 in response to requests for an alcohol-free seating area, has been quietly eliminated this season. Tickets in the section will be priced at $8, up $2 from last season. The increase contradicts the club’s announcement last November that prices would not rise this season.

Ticket prices at Anaheim Stadium, which seats 64,593 for baseball, range from $4 for general admission to $11 for field and club box seats. Youths’ general admission, in effect Monday through Thursday for those 15 and under, will be $1.

“I think it’s a shame,” Brian Bird of Ontario, a screenwriter and father of three sons, said of the family section’s disappearance. “It was a great way to bring the Little League teams out and give them a good day at the ballpark in the right environment.”

Club officials said low demand for family-section seats made the specially designated area impractical. They also said measures would be taken this season to ensure that families will feel comfortable sitting in any area of the stadium and will not have to endure foul language or rowdy behavior from fellow spectators.

“It just really never took off and it was a costly area for us to staff,” Kevin Uhlich, the club’s assistant vice president and director of facilities operations, said of the family section. “We want to work on the whole ballpark being family oriented.

“There may be a few hard-core people that want to sit there (and now can’t). But it wasn’t a desirable location compared to view level and other locations. They may complain and say they feel more secure sitting in a family section, but we just need to do our job better as a city and an ushering staff to monitor possible problems.”

Uhlich said he had no exact figures on the average attendance in the family section, which was located at field level in left field.

“Looking out there, sometimes it was 30 and sometimes it was all 2,600 seats,” he said. “It created a problem, staffing-wise, and it was a problem in that it was a reduced-admission area surrounded by higher-priced areas.”

He also said ushers this year received special training in alcohol awareness and how to deal with spectators whom they suspect have had too much to drink.

Angel President Richard Brown also cited the scarcity of ticket buyers in the family section as the reason for its elimination.

“It was not done for economic reasons,” Brown said. “It was an idea that looked good and just didn’t work out to be as popular as we had hoped. It was grossly underutilized.”

Sandy Salgado, a mother of six from Mission Viejo, said she bought family-section seats about half a dozen times before deciding the tickets were overpriced.

“I liked the idea. It took an edge off in having your family in a more conducive family atmosphere, rather than being subjected to some of the abusive language that occurs in other sections,” she said. “I appreciated the fact that they made a family section but they didn’t make it family-affordable.”

Les Johnson, a librarian for the San Bernardino County library system, said he recently attended a Neil Diamond concert and encountered drunk concert-goers who became ill in public.

“It happened at ballgames a few times, too,” he said. That prompted him to sit in the family section each of the three times he attended Angels’ games in recent years. His children range in age from 12 to 19.

“I’ll probably still go, although it’s getting to the point where a family can’t afford it,” he said. “I just like to go without having to deal with beer. If it means beer is going to be there, I’ll probably go less often.”

Brian Bird willingly paid a higher admission price to sit in the family section and said he will miss the section this season. Its existence, he said, “spread the good news of sobriety and moderation. Now, we’re basically selling out to beer advertisers.

“It’s a shame,” he added. “I would rather pay a few extra dollars and not see fistfights and have beer dumped on my head. We’ll still go, but now we’re going to have to explain why some baseball fans--the minority--act like jerks.”

Times staff writer Lynn Smith contributed to this story.