The Cleveland Indians' 10-cent beer night in 1976 turned into a full riot when underage fans flooded the stadium. Rangers players were attacked with knives and chains, hundreds got hurt, and nine were arrested. The team nearly folded before tightening beer sales and security.
10-cent beer night almost killed an entire Major League Baseball team. Just a bunch of kids who just couldn't handle their liquor. Here's what happened. In the 1970s, Major League Baseball is at peak popularity, and there's a major beef between the Texas Rangers and their rivals, the Cleveland Indians. At one game, there's a bench-clearing brawl with Rangers fans throwing beer and food at the Indians. So the Indians want to pack the stadium for their next home game against Texas, and they come up with this promotion. That price is cheaper than what you would pay at a bar back then, and the drinking age at the time was still just 18 years old. Now, your job as a business owner owners to think through everything that can or will go wrong. The stadium is packed with 25,000 drunk fans, and things go off the rails fast. It is a madhouse, and a full-scale riot breaks out. Cleveland fans swarm the Texas players, attacking them with knives, chains, even parts of the stadium that they've ripped apart. 9 people are arrested, hundreds are injured, and all the bases, well, they got stolen. It's a disaster. The next month, the Cleveland Indians only offer 2 discounted drinks per person and hire 4 times the security.
