Lager-less Fans Aren’t Brewing a Revolution

Alvin Simon is 61. He lives a block away from the Los Angeles Coliseum. His chin stubble is white; his eyelids droop over his brown eyes. He wears a dirty white T-shirt and sagging jeans. He pushes a grocery cart. On top of the cart is his bike. The bike helps keep the overflowing contents of the cart from spilling back into the street.

“Lots of cans and bottles,” Simon says. “Dos Equis, they love that. Budweiser too. And Michelob. I think it’s going to be a good day for me. Good day for me. Love this day for me.”

Simon has collected cans outside the Coliseum “for a decade, maybe more. Who knows?”

Saturday, as USC opened its home football season and continued its quest for a record-setting three consecutive national championships with a dominating win over Arkansas, fans settled into a new routine. They can no longer buy beer inside the Coliseum. “I can tell already,” Simon said two hours before kickoff, “that I’m going to do better than ever. The people are pouring the beer out here in the street.”

Last spring, USC President Steven Sample sent a letter to USC supporters telling them that because of too much foul language and too much bad behavior they would no longer be able to buy beer inside the stadium during football games.

“When I heard that news,” said 1983 grad Marty Martinovich, “it was a crushing blow. I felt like we had just lost to UCLA.”

Martinovich, who had driven from his Palm Desert home, sat at a round table covered in a cardinal-colored cloth, sipping the $7 beer he had bought under a tent set up at the corner of 39th and Figueroa. It was about two hours before the game and Martinovich sat with three friends as they drank. The beer garden was set up to hold 1,000. There were 45 people inside.

Casey Fitzpatrick, another USC alum, said he was “initially upset” about Sample’s edict. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized in the big scheme it wasn’t important. Will it mean there’s no beer inside? Probably not. But that’s OK. We’re all about the football.”

By the time USC led, 42-10, as halftime approached, lines snaked back and forth in front of the fish taco stand, the carne asada stand, the hot dog stand, the kettle corn stand. But a man could walk past the O’Doul’s stands and find not a soul in front of him.

O’Doul’s, a non-alcoholic beer, was going for $6 a cup. “We’re not selling much,” said the young man behind the counter of one O’Doul’s sales spot. He said he wasn’t allowed to give out his name. “I’d probably get fired for saying this, but the customers aren’t happy,” he said. “I thought most of them knew about the no-beer thing, but I guess a lot of them don’t.”

In a period of five minutes, eight people marched up to the stand asking for a beer. They all left empty-handed, refusing both the O’Doul’s and the vitamin water and soft drinks available.

But when the team is a winner, the liquid refreshments don’t seem to matter as much.

David Baker, father of USC tackle Sam Baker and commissioner of the Arena Football League, said he understood both sides of the issue. “I’m a dad first, and my focus is on the football,” Baker said. “I’m also the commissioner of a league. I understand how the fans feel about wanting a beer during the game.

“But I hope a lot of people will enjoy the game more. We’ve got a great team here. Maybe if there’s less beer around more people will understand what they’re seeing out on the field. Because it’s great stuff.”

Certainly, USC officials are trying to keep the fans entertained with or without beer. Or football. While it wasn’t necessarily conceived as a counter to the revocation of beer privileges, there is a new Fan Fest outside the stadium near the Peristyle entrance. It’s free to anyone, even those without tickets, and includes games, food stalls and dining tables. At the same time there were 45 people in the beer tent, 101 stood in line at Fan Fest waiting to take a picture with cut-out Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush figures.

Uzall Edwards had come with his 4-year-old daughter Riana and 3-year-old son Jordan.

“We were going to the museums,” Edwards said, “but the kids saw this and wanted to come.” Riana said proudly, “I want USC to win.” “We don’t have tickets,” Edwards said, “but we’ll be fans from now on.”

Still, many of the adults in the crowd weren’t sold on the idea of no beer sales. Kostas Kavayiotidis, a 25-year-old USC grad, said, “In my opinion, this ban will last two or three years. Once we start losing some games, watch out.” Scott Hardin of San Diego, USC ‘87, agreed. “It may come to the point where I’d rather watch the game in front of my television with a beer in my hand. I mean a beer I didn’t have to sneak in.”

Three men sitting together at the top of the stadium held plastic water bottles in their hands. Inside the bottles was an amber liquid.

“Dark lemonade,” one said. “Light root beer,” another said.

When asked for their names they smiled, shook their heads and toasted themselves. “Fight on.”