Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image. This is the first of two reports on alcohol and sports. Part Two: Some critics want college sports officials to rethink the long and lucrative relationship with beer advertisers

Tomorrow in Sports: Some critics want college sports officials to rethink the long and lucrative relationship with beer advertisers.

Paralyzed from the neck down at one fateful intersection, Antonia Verni now casts a sobering shadow over the cultural interchange that merges alcohol and sporting events.

In fall 1999, returning from a pumpkin-picking trip with her parents, the 2-year-old New Jersey tot suffered a broken neck and a crushed spinal cord at the hands of a drunken driver who got plastered before, during and after an NFL game.

Earlier this year, a New Jersey jury -- swayed by the argument that a "culture of intoxication" was the root cause of her catastrophe -- awarded her a landmark $135 million in punitive and compensatory damages to be paid mostly by the concessionaire that sells beer at Giants Stadium.

That verdict, along with an ugly melee between NBA players and fans in Detroit last November, prompted some rule changes and a reappraisal of alcohol policies at many arenas and stadiums. And the changes are advocated by the Verni family.

"Antonia has a purpose, and that's to send a message about the irresponsibility of over-serving of alcohol at a sporting event," her father, Ronald, said in a telephone interview from the family's home in Cliffside Park, N.J.

Her injury is so devastating that the breath she takes is dependent on a machine that pumps oxygen through a hole cut into her windpipe, even though she still loves to sing "Fly Me To The Moon" and other favorite songs. Antonia, now 7 and still harboring little girl dreams of becoming a ballerina, requires round-the-clock care and counts on others to lift her in and out of her wheelchair.

Mike Derer, Associated Press Antonia Verni, 7, raises her arm during news conference with her father, Ronald Verni, in Roseland, N.J., Jan. 20. Click photo for larger image.

"We're not prohibitionists. You can't take alcohol completely out of a sporting event, and we don't want to. But we want it served responsibly and want the stadiums and arenas to be held accountable so this kind of thing doesn't happen to anyone else," Verni said. "You can see where the line crosses and pleasure becomes danger. We're a tragic example of a failed policy."

Beginning 20 years ago, the major sports leagues and their various teams and venues began adopting policies to control beer consumption through a coalition called TEAM (Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management), a non-profit, public-private initiative involving such diverse groups as beer-makers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

While TEAM had set long-established guidelines on beer sales, tighter restrictions have appeared in the past three months:

Drinking inside Giants Stadium and tailgating before and after games will be monitored more aggressively, including by undercover agents, under a resolution passed Jan. 21 by the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority. "We have redoubled our efforts," said authority spokesman Bernard Spigner. "The purchase of a ticket does not allow you to act stupid or get bent-over, sloppy drunk. If you want to get trashed, stay home and watch on your couch."

At the NBA All-Star weekend in Denver in February, guidelines were mandated for all NBA teams that limit fans to two beers per purchase, limit the size of alcoholic drinks to 24 ounces and ban alcohol sales after the start of the fourth quarter. Designated driver programs were also required.

The NASCAR-sanctioned Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for the first time in its history, stopped selling alcohol before the end of two races March 12-13. Last call came after lap 170 of a 200-lap Busch series race and at lap 225 of the 267-lap Nextel Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

At the Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Twins, the maximum purchase of beers in one transaction is now two instead of four. Beer sales will stop at the end of the seventh inning instead of at the end of the top of the eighth inning. Also new is the policy on ejections: Beery fans engaging in abusive behavior get only one warning before they are tossed out.

At PNC Park this year, beer sales at concession stands will stop at the completion of the seventh inning, rather than at the end of the eighth. Vending in the stands stops at the end of the seventh, as it did last season. The Pirates said they made the change at the request of their concessionaire, Aramark Corp., which has a seventh-inning policy.

The Steelers cut off beer sales earlier than normal during the AFC Championship game, although team officials said it had nothing to do with the Verni verdict a few days earlier. Vendors stopped selling beer after halftime, and concession stands stopped sales five minutes into the third quarter. Heinz Field officials said adjustments in policy, which follows the NFL guideline of halting beer sales at the end of the third quarter, are made when games have a later starting time.

Anything that reinforces the responsible sale and consumption of alcohol has the support of everyone from sociologists to law enforcers. But critics contend there's a fundamental hypocrisy in having those who profit from beer sales being in charge of curbing them.

"They all get a cut. They want to sell as much as possible. It's a recipe for disaster," said David Mazie, the lawyer who represented the Vernis. "It's against the law to serve anyone who's visibly intoxicated. I would hope her case changes the way stadiums and arenas deal with this issue. They can't just pay lip service. There have to be substantive changes."

And a policy, no matter how strict, is only as good as its enforcement.

George Hacker, director of alcohol policies at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., said he "kind of laughed" when he first heard of the NBA guidelines.

"These are limits without any real meaning," Hacker said. "These kinds of changes seem to be focused on one thing -- to minimize the liability of the stadium, team and league if people get into their cars and drive drunk. I don't think that gets to the point. That's a very narrow perspective. I have nothing against responsible sale and use of alcohol at a sporting event. Where it does become a problem is when drinking becomes the event."

A long, close relationship

Beer and sports, sports and beer. It's a yeasty, inseparable tandem. Sports fans drink beer. Beer-drinkers watch sports. You don't have to look very hard to find the relationship, not when there are places like Coors Field and Busch Stadium and a baseball team in Milwaukee called the Brewers playing in Miller Park.

Everything from the Super Bowl to bowling, from horse races and car races and dog races, from darts tournaments to the Olympics, seems to have a beer connection. Alcohol producers spent $595 million on ads for sports programming in 2002, according to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth.

Travel back to St. Louis in 1881, the earliest days of professional baseball. Chris Von Der Ahe, a German immigrant, discovered that his saloon did a frothy business when the St. Louis Brown Stockings were in town.

When Von Der Ahe was denied permission to sell suds at the ballpark, he bought a share of the team and put in a beer garden -- at field level. He died in 1913 at the age of 61 of cirrhosis of the liver.

The Yankees, the most storied franchise in sports, began their run of championships under a beer-maker. Jacob Ruppert, whose family fortune poured from a brewery, bought the Yankees in 1915. In the 24 years he owned the team, the Yankees won their first 10 pennants and seven World Series titles.

Beer is a sponsor, underwriter, profit-maker and party-starter. Fans quaff a few to toast a victory and drown their sorrows after a loss, giving rise to such slogans as "Win or lose, there's always booze." There's hardly a place in America without a T-shirt that says "Our place, a drinking town with a football/hockey/baseball/basketball problem." There are also T-shirts with a tankard of brew over the words "When they pry it from my cold dead hands."

But beer can also be a troublemaker.

By its nature, alcohol causes a loss of inhibitions, judgment and coordination AND increased aggression. Mix that with the passions of sports fanatics and things can spiral out of control -- from the agony of having to listen to a loud-mouth letting loose a stream of invective, to fans lobbing beer containers over displeasure with a call or a performance, to those who charge onto the playing area to assault umpires and coaches, or worse.

It is true that the vast majority of fans manage to comport themselves within the bounds of acceptable behavior while a pesky few ruin the fun.

But there were enough concerns about eliminating abusive and dangerous behavior to lead to the creation of the TEAM Coalition in 1985. Venue operators wanted their ticket-buying patrons to enjoy their experience, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wanted to keep drunks off the roads after games.

The concept is that an entire team is responsible for spotting problem drinkers before they get out of hand. That includes beer vendors, ushers, greeters, ticket-takers and parking lot attendants.

TEAM offers a two-day training course, one of which was held at Heinz Field in early March. At $600 per person, TEAM trained 11,000 people last year -- 60 percent of them in concessions and the rest in operations -- on how to cut off problems before they escalate. TEAM also stresses ID checks to guard against underage drinking and provides a designated driver program.

"Our goal is that every employee knows how to handle those rare few that go beyond what is expected behavior," said Jill Pepper, TEAM's executive director

She said that the Verni case heightened awareness.

"It brings it all home. That's the situation we're trying to avoid. That's the reason we exist," Pepper said. "Our primary goal is the responsible consumption of alcohol by fans."

At the convergence of this mix of alcohol and sports is Aramark, the Philadelphia-based concessionaire that had $10 billion in total sales and $263 million in net income at 260 sports venues in 19 countries last year. Its clients include PNC Park, Heinz Field and Mellon Arena.

Aramark oversees concessions at Giants Stadium and is on the hook in the Verni verdict, although it is appealing. Aramark is also a founding member of TEAM and sends more people for training every year than any other entity.

"This is a group effort on the part of the venues to meet or exceed policy," said Sean Rooney, who is TEAM's treasurer and Aramark's president of stadiums and arenas.

"It's really an issue of safety for the fans. We want them to enjoy the game experience. I also think it's the right thing to do," added Rooney, a grandson of Steelers founder Art Rooney.

When the NBA sought guidance on fan control, Aramark provided the policy.

Major League Baseball got on board the TEAM concept in 1986, beginning a massive training program after it recognized it had a serious problem that was hurting attendance.

"There is an expectation by the public that people who attend our games are not drinking to excess, and that management is responsible for seeing to that," said Kevin Hallinan, chairman of the TEAM board and an MLB senior vice president. "Training and management is not something we ever take for granted."

One of TEAM's master trainers is Bill Squires, a former vendor at Giants Stadium and now vice president of Stadium Managers Association.

"I want to make sure you have a good time, don't interfere with the enjoyment of others and get home safely," said Squires. "We believe it's everybody's responsibility, whether legally or morally, to make sure that happens."

But if somebody is bent on getting blitzed, no policy is 100 percent foolproof in stopping a drunk a from getting behind the wheel.

"We're almost protecting them from themselves," Squires said.

Horror stories abound about boorish behavior at local games, especially the tailgate parties before Steelers game. But Sgt. John Fisher of the Pittsburgh police force commended the staffs at Heinz Field and PNC Park for their training and vigilance in alcohol awareness.

Police have 30 officers and a supervisor at football games, which draw larger crowds and offer more time for pre-game drinking, and 15 officers and a supervisor at baseball games.

"There are incidents, but nothing major," Fisher said. "Overall, at both, I can't say we have major problems. Even inside, the severely intoxicated person is rare."

There were no citations for disorderly conduct at Steelers games last season, Fisher said. Some unruly fans were ejected, and while Fisher didn't have an exact count, he said the number of those asked to leave wasn't major.

At Giants Stadium, officials said, 50 to 60 fans are detained for overindulging during a typical Giants or Jets game.

Alcohol level at 0.266

On the Sunday morning of Oct. 24, 1999, Ron and Faila Baksh-Verni drove from their home to New Hope, Pa., to find a Halloween pumpkin for Antonia.

Daniel Lanzaro, a 30-year-old carpenter and admitted alcoholic, left his home in Cresskill, N.J., to buy his first six-pack on the way to Giants Stadium. He cracked his first beer at 11 a.m., two hours before kickoff.

In court testimony, the 5-foot-5, 145-pound Lanzaro testified he drank 16 beers that day and smoked marijuana. Included in that binge was a halftime purchase of six 16-ounce beers. Lanzaro said he was able to circumvent the stadium policy of a two-beer limit per purchase by slipping a $10 bribe to a vendor.

Following the game, Lanzaro and a friend bought another six-pack and a bottle of champagne while visiting two strip clubs.

After purchasing some White Castle hamburgers, Lanzaro was driving home. At 5:45 p.m., at an intersection in a residential neighborhood overlooking Giants Stadium, Lanzaro's truck crossed a double yellow line and plowed into the Vernis' car.

His blood alcohol level was .266, nearly three times the level for being drunk in New Jersey. He was unable to stand up straight or recite the alphabet, according to the police report, and he didn't know the score of the game.

Antonia was wearing a seat belt but was not in a car seat. Her neck snapped, damaging her spinal cord. Her injury was similar to the one suffered by the late Christopher Reeve.

During her 11 months is the hospital and in rehab, her head was bolted to a halo to stabilize her spine. Her spinal column was later fused, and she was fitted with a body brace. Unless a cure is found to reverse the spinal cord damage -- and the Vernis want to earmark part of their settlement to stem cell research -- she is consigned to a wheelchair for life.

In addition, her mother required reconstructive surgery on her face and had a rod inserted into a leg.

In August 2003, Lanzaro pleaded guilty to vehicular assault and is serving a five-year prison term. His second child was born while Lanzaro was behind bars.

In January, a New Jersey Superior Court jury determined that Lanzaro and Aramark were equally responsible for $60 million in compensatory damages, but Lanzaro's insurance tapped out at $200,000. (The NFL, the Giants and the New Jersey Sports & Exhibition Authority were dropped from the suit and settled out of court for $700,000.) Within days of the first verdict, Aramark was ordered to pay $75 million in punitive damages.

"Antonia wants to be like every other kid," her father said. "She knows she was hit by a drunk driver. But she's not bitter. She had tremendous spirit. She's got a purpose. She put a human face on this whole issue."

Message to vendors

The Verni verdict obviously caught the attention of everyone in the vending business.

"I'm hoping it sends a very strong message that these venues need to clean up their act," said James Mosher, an expert on alcohol liability law for the Center for the Study of Law Enforcement and Policy at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Felton, Calif.

Mosher once had season tickets to watch the NBA's Golden State Warriors and witnessed how the atmosphere and attendance improved when the franchise cracked down on problem fans.

"If you're not one of the drunks, it's no fun. These are loud, obnoxious, offensive people," Mosher said. "It's almost a truism that if there's violence at an event, there's usually alcohol involved. If you don't serve it responsibly, you're scaring away some of your best customers."