HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — It’s been 40 years since the Huntsville Stars came to town, but at one point, they almost didn’t.
Those who were around the Rocket City in the time leading up to the team coming remember the beer dilemma.
“The owner says nope, no beer, no team,” former News 19 anchor Steve Johnson said.
Investor Larry Schmittou was ready to bring the his Double-A franchise, but concerns over the sales of beer nearly shelved the team.
“There was a very interested citizen who stood up and said ‘You know, this is just not going to work you are gonna allow beer in the stadium and you’ll have beer around these children and you’re trying to bring children in and do something family oriented and you’re going to have beer?’ and they said ‘Are y’all going to vote for beer,’” Mayor Battle said. “The councilmen said ‘Oh no, we wouldn’t have beer there. We won’t beer come into that stadium.’”
Schmittou had different plans. 40 years later, he said there was no way he would’ve brought the team to Huntsville had the council not let him sell beer.
“No one has to drink or buy a hotdog or popcorn, but it’s part of revenue,” Schmittou said. “People make choices about where they go and don’t go and as long as its done reasonably, I don’t drink myself but it’s a necessary evil.”
Beerless baseball might raise some eyebrows in 2025, but it was a different time during 1984 in Alabama.
“This was way before craft beer and it was just a different time,” Johnson said. “There was just this idea that they were going to sell beer at a sporting event in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s just going to lead to bad things and of course it just never did.”
Huntsville was in dangerous waters of losing the team. But, Mayor Joe Davis went to work. He approached Schmittou with a compromise — There would be a drinking section and a non-drinking section.
Ultimately, the Huntsville City Council voted in favor of the compromise and concerns about disruptive behavior never materialized.
“We never really had an issue with people drinking,” Huntsville Police Chief Kirk Giles who worked security at Joe Davis Stadium said.
“But, we did have a non-drinking section for so many years,” first ticket manager for the Stars Cynthia Giles said.
Despite the two sections, the drinking section, according to Cynthia Giles, sold like crazy. But, people still sat in the non-drinking section.
“Oh the drinking section sold more, it definitely did,” Cynthia Giles said. “We still had a lot of people who would bring their families and they would sit there and we had a general admission section also non-drinking.”
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