Contacts: Amon Rappaport &
Laurie Leiber, 415-456-5692
Alcohol-Fueled Assaults Spur Effort to Oust Aramark from Pro Sports;
Fans Fight Back With Help From Alcohol Industry Watchdog
SAN RAFAEL, CA September 27---Two drunken assaults on a man and his young son at Coors Field are inspiring a national campaign to make sports venues safer. The Marin Institute is calling on the commissioners of Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League to fire Aramark, a vendor whose unsafe serving practices have been linked to alcohol-related violence and injury.
After two drunken fans verbally assaulted Jeff Black and his 9-year-old son during a Colorado Rockies baseball game in April 2004, Black asked security for help. Aramark then served one of the visibly intoxicated men yet another beer, which he took back to the stands and dumped on Black and his young son. The two intoxicated fans were then escorted from their seats by security. As Black and other surrounding fans comforted his scared, shaken and beer-soaked son, the second attacker returned with another full beer in hand and assaulted the Blacks from behind. A violent melee erupted when several other fans came to the Blacks’ defense. The assailants were ultimately convicted of assault, but so far Aramark hasn’t been held accountable for its part in the attack. (Black has filed a lawsuit against both the Rockies and Aramark and has announced plans to donate any proceeds from his lawsuit to nonprofit prevention groups).
Aramark is the same company recently found liable for $110 million in damages for repeatedly serving an intoxicated NY Giants football fan who then crashed into a family, paralyzing a little girl. An international company specializing in food services, Aramark is the vendor at 33 venues which host 45 professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey teams.
An investigation aired this week on the TV show "Inside Edition" found that Aramark still fails to enforce its own service limit of no more than two servings per transaction at both Coors Field and Shea Stadium. One reporter was able to purchase eight beers in a half-hour.
“Clearly, Aramark’s unsafe serving practices make it a threat to children, families and other fans,” says Mark Pertschuk, executive director of the Marin Institute. “If Aramark were a player on any professional team they’d have been cut from the roster by now. Aramark is putting profits before safety,” says Pertschuk. “Its unsafe serving practices are ruining what were once America’s favorite pastimes.”
The Marin Institute’s new campaign to “Eject Aramark From the Game” invites fans to sign onto a letter to the four professional sports commissioners urging them to kick Aramark off their teams. “I’m glad Marin Institute has launched this effort nationally,” says Jeff Black. “Sports fans who are tired of the kind of alcohol-fueled violence my family experienced can now join together and demand real change.”
The Marin Institute is an alcohol industry watchdog and resource for solutions to community alcohol problems. See the “Inside Edition” story and learn more at www.MarinInstitute.org
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