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No beer for 'Toronto the Good'

Broadcast Date: March 23, 1977

There's nothing like sitting in a big league ballpark, eating peanuts and quaffing a...soda pop. So says the "No Booze in the Ballpark Committee" and the Ontario government, which has made Toronto's Exhibition Stadium the only major league venue that prohibits alcohol. It's a bit of an embarrassment for a team partly owned by a brewery. In this CBC Radio clip, booze proponents soberly plead their case.

No beer for 'Toronto the Good'

• Opponents of ballpark booze claimed the sale of beer would create a rowdy atmosphere and dangerous drivers leaving the stadium. The "No Booze in the Ballpark Committee" claimed it was a slippery slope that would lead to booze at hockey games and even amateur sporting events. Blue Jays general manager Peter Bavasi countered that this hadn't happened in other cities, and trying to keep beer out of the park provided the greater security risk.

• Ontario Premier Bill Davis, whose government was responsible for the ruling, attended the opening game. On several occasions the crowd chanted, "We want beer!"
• In 1982 Davis announced that beer would be permitted at Blue Jays games. Ontario consumer minister Larry Grossman objected, saying he didn't want some drunk sitting behind him "puking" on his kids. Five years later, a Toronto Sun article pointed out that nobody had puked on them yet.

• A study conducted before and after the introduction of beer sales at Exhibition Stadium found that between four and seven per cent of fans consumed enough alcohol to become legally impaired.

No beer for 'Toronto the Good'

Medium: Radio

Program: The World At Six

Broadcast Date: March 23, 1977

Guest(s): Peter Bavasi, Sidney Handleman

Host: Bob Oxley, George Rich
Reporter: Doug Grant

Duration: 3:03

Last updated:
Oct. 27, 2003