“Baseball fans may have to trade beer suds for soda pop this summer after the state says it found questionable practices involving alcoholic beverage licensing. All of the United League Baseball (UBL) teams in Texas, including the Harlingen WhiteWings and Edinburg Coyotes, will likely lose their alcoholic beverage licenses in the next several days in connection with the findings,” reports The Brownsville Herald online here.
According to the article, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s regulations require that the manager listed on an alcoholic beverage license be someone who (1) “profits” from the alcohol sales, and (2) actively participates in managing alcohol sales. And this was not the case for the UBL’s listed licensee here, Jerry Deal, who only held that position on paper.
It appears that, for whatever reason, Deal was demoted and denied managerial benefits by the UBL. Oops. It’s probably not good to upset the person who holds the key to your coolers — who do you think has the leverage.
The end of the story: Deal surrenders his alcohol license to the TABC. Fans will likely face a beer drought. Just typing “beerless baseball” makes me thirsty.
Cary Wiggins on the Web