In the news lately is the story that the Raleigh City Council approved, in a questionable closed-door session, the naming of an amphitheater after a beer sponsor.
State law prevents any public venue from carrying the name of an alcohol sponsor. It is only with special exception from the ABC Commission that such sponsorships can be approved. This post is a guest post, by Judge Ron Bogle, on the critical importance of fighting to uphold our state’s long time ban on alcohol sponsorships of public venues.
The Raleigh Amphitheater Issue: What You Can Do
The State Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission will consider a request made by the City of Raleigh to waive an existing State regulation prohibiting the use of an alcohol product name on a public facility. The city wants to name its new amphitheater the Bud Light Amphitheater, in exchange for $1.5 million from Anheuser Busch for its perpetual publicly supported and maintained advertising.
The commission will render its decision at its June 17th meeting in Raleigh. Time is of the essence, and I urge you to contact the commission to express your opposition to granting of this waiver, and, in particular, to naming this public facility after an alcohol product (visit this website to comment: http://www.ncabc.com/news/announcement.aspx?aid=285).
The industry spends billions in daily consumption messaging, and all North Carolinians (responsible drinkers and non-drinkers alike) pay a heavy cost for those abusing alcohol products like Bud Light.
You can contact the commission by letter, email, preferably both, and in person by attending the June 17th meeting at the following address if you have not already done so:
Email: contactus@abc.nc.gov
Mailing Address: NC Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission
4307 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4307
Meeting location: 3322 Garner Road, Raleigh, NC 27610
Directions: http://www.ncabc.com/aboutus/ABCDirections.aspx
The commission members are:
Chairman Jonathan Williams
Member J.D. Lyons, Jr.
Member A.D. Guy, Jr.
The prohibition against the use of alcohol products on public facilities is sound and responsible public policy. Most of the alcohol sold in North Carolina (and most of the problems related to the abuse or misuse of alcohol in North Carolina) involve malt beverage, the teen drug of choice. Underage drinking alone costs our State $1.4 billion annually. Given the price we already pay for the societal harm caused by alcohol products, we should not provide a favorable advertising position to any alcohol product through the use of a public facility. Granting this request for waiver from the City of Raleigh will effectively eviscerate this policy, and it seems certain that efforts will follow in many other cities and towns across the State to accomplish similar advantages for other industry products.
I urge you to share this message and encourage others to contact the commission. Together we can make a difference about this issue – we must make sure that our voice and opinions are heard loud and clear by the commission.
–Ron Bogle–