Beer and baseball are so deeply entwined, the idea of watching a baseball game without booze – without the roving sellers, or that familiar stickiness underfoot in the stands – just doesn’t seem right, but this was reality for the first five years of the Blue Jays franchise.
The 1950 plebiscite had been the first stone removed from the foundation of Toronto’s restrictive conservative laws, but it would take more than four decades for the rest of the tower to crumble. Over the years, amended by-laws were passed in Toronto, extending the curfew later into the evening, but confusing, and complicated Lord’s Day rules still survived, as did other Puritan holdovers. One such restrictive piece of legislation was Ontario’s long-standing ban on the sale of alcohol at sporting events.
Prohibition came into effect in Ontario via the Ontario Temperance Act in 1916, which banned the sale of alcohol as a wartime measure. Although provincially the act was repealed in 1927, certain restrictions remained, including a provincial ban on the sale of alcohol at sporting events which lasted until 1982.
Just as in the case of Sunday sports, baseball was in the spotlight as changemaker once again.
Prohibition Stadium
When the Blue Jays were founded in 1977, they played their home games at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Exhibition Stadium first opened in 1949 (replacing a previous structure that had burned in a fire) within the large complex of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE, aka “The Ex”), an enormous agricultural fair that had operated annually in Toronto since 1879. The stadium was built to host CNE events, including horse racing, car racing, and more. Ten years later, the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL) moved into the retrofitted stadium, which at that time was known as Canadian National Exhibition Stadium. In the 1970s, the stadium was updated to make way for the incoming Major League Baseball franchise. Seats were added around the end of the football end zone making for an oddly-arrayed stadium that was neither optimally-suited for baseball or football. Right on Lake Ontario, the open-air stadium could also be bitterly cold, with fog and seagulls occasionally impeding play. It would have been nice to have a beverage to warm up a fan’s insides, but per Toronto by-laws, none could be sold within the stadium.
The Only Dry Ballpark in the MLB
Out of twenty-six major league ballparks, Toronto’s was the only stadium that was dry, so as a result, it became jokingly known as “Prohibition Stadium”. What makes this state of affairs even stranger is that the Blue Jays were 45% owned by Labatt Breweries, who could not even sell their own product in the stadium. In the early days of the Blue Jays, signs, like the one included were placed around Exhibition Stadium making it clear that the ballpark was dry. Apparently, it was not uncommon for fans to sneak in their own beverages, which per the sign would have been in direct contravention of the posted by-law. This ban on alcohol sales did not just impact the Blue Jays of course, but also the Argonauts with whom they shared the stadium, and every other sporting event in the province. One of the most vocal proponents of selling alcohol at sporting events was Metro Toronto Chairman, and CBHFM Class of 2024 inductee, Paul Godfrey. Godfrey was one of those responsible for getting a Major League Baseball franchise to Toronto in 1977, and ever since he’d been championing an amendment to the liquor restrictions so as to improve the fan experience. Pressure mounted from Godfrey, but also from the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who had begun demanding compensation from the city of Hamilton for lost revenue as a result of the liquor prohibition.
After five years without a drop of alcohol sold within Exhibition Stadium, the Ontario government finally relented. In June, 1982, they decided to allow a two-year trial at three open-air venues: Exhibition Stadium, Ivor Wynn Stadium in Hamilton (home of the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats), and Lansdowne Stadium in Ottawa (home of the CFL’s Ottawa Rough Riders). The three venues scrambled to install the necessary taps, kegs, and refrigeration, each vying to be the first to dispense the first history-making beer.
On Friday July 30, 1982, just as the gates were ready to open, Paul Godfrey poured and sipped the first beer at Exhibition Stadium (much to the chagrin of the Tiger-Cats organization who had to settle for second place). He sold the stadium’s first beer to a visiting Detroit Tigers fan for $1.75 (with inflation, this translates to just over $5.00 today).
A Labatt’s can created for a series against the Boston Red Sox that would have been sold inside SkyDome in 1992/1993.
Per the rules, fans were limited to purchasing beer only from concession stands (roving sellers were not an option), and only at a volume of two at a time. Three options were available, including Molson Export, Carling O’Keefe’s Carlsberg, and of course, the ownership’s own Labatt’s Blue. The province held its breath as the first beers were sold, (perhaps with memories of the notorious “10 Cent Beer Night” debacle in Cleveland in 1974) but the game did not devolve into booze-soaked chaos. Around 15,000 beers were sold throughout the course of the game to the crowd of 18,262 fans, with sales cutting off at the start of the ninth inning.
And the cherry on top of it all? A Jays’ win, courtesy of a walk-off Rance Mulliniks single that scored Dámaso García from second in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Baseball was once again at the cutting edge when it came to overturning restrictive laws in Ontario, serving the province’s first legal alcoholic drink at a sporting event on that warm summer day in 1982. The province granted the Blue Jays an exception so that they could continue to profit from alcohol sales in the coming years. The CFL in Ontario followed immediately, but it wasn’t until 1993 that the Toronto Maple Leafs (of the National Hockey League this time) finally got permission to sell beer at Maple Leaf Gardens!
Today the Rogers Centre’s menu has grown from three beers to boast an enormous list of alcoholic beverages that are found for sale all over the stadium, including from roving sellers. Once beer was allowed within Exhibition Stadium, the team never looked back, and the sale of alcohol remains an enormous source of revenue for the franchise.
