There are a few things that all Badger fans take pride in: athletic competitions, State Street and having a good time.
A football Saturday in Madison is like nothing most people have ever experienced. There is no other place where school pride is more proudly displayed and enjoyed by all.
UW-Madison has been near the top of national party schools for a while, but since The Princeton Review declared it No.1 in 2005, the city and the university have done everything in their power to discredit this decision while ignoring the US News & World Report rankings that placed UW-Madison No. 32 academically in the nation. It started with changing the student football voucher program and is now trying to place limits on Madison area bars' beer gardens on football game days.
Recently, Madison Fire Department Marshal Ed Ruckriegel met with a subcommittee of the Madison Alcohol License Review Committee to discuss placing a limit on the number of people allowed in beer gardens on football game days. The addition of "on football game days" brings up further suspicion about the actual reason for these limits. Is it a concern for safety or limiting drinking?
Marsh Shapiro, ALRC member and Dane County Tavern League representative, who is also the owner of The Nitty Gritty, better explained the proposal.
"Their [reasoning] is what [could happen if] there is a fire or emergency situation inside one of those establishments and the people inside can't get out because the beer gardens are so crowded," Shapiro said.
Despite the focus of the proposal, which the Madison Fire Department claims as safety, Mr. Shapiro believes that they have an underlying, unstated intention: "They're trying to put a lid on some of the pre-game and post-game activity," Shapiro added. "I think it's more [an issue of] crowd-control, and they're trying to lessen amount of alcohol consumption." He also added, "The places that they're talking about depend so heavily on football Saturdays for some of their revenues."
If a person wants to participate in game day festivities, placing capacity limits on beer gardens at bars is not going to stop them. They will find somewhere to go.
It's rules like these that encourage binge drinking because, if a person is aware that it will be difficult to get into bars because of lines due to capacity limits, they are more likely to binge drink before they leave their home.
It is unfortunate that Madison has come to this. It is not only the Regent Street bars that are packed on game days; it is every bar in the downtown Madison area. By forcing students and adults to travel further to attend game day festivities, attendance will be further delayed and new problems will arise like drunk driving.
This proposal is also unfair to businesses that rely on game day profits. Jim Luedtke, owner of Stadium Sports Bar and Eatery on Monroe Street, said a significant part of his bar's revenue rests on the success of beer gardens on game days, since "The football beer gardens are the gravy of being in business, and they help pad our profit margins."
The safety issue should not be a problem, since the beer gardens are outside and there are multiple entrances. If need be, a person can easily get over the fences. Mr. Luedtke also added that his beer garden, which is the largest in the Camp Randall area, uses Dane County sheriffs to monitor crowd activity within the area.
Every student, alum or Badger fan knows what UW-Madison is really about. It is a city that exists happily with the university and a university that keeps equilibrium between work and play better than any other in the nation. Regardless of actions taken by the university and the city to discredit these claims, UW will continue to top the list for party schools and academic achievement.
Joelle Parks ([email protected]) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism.
