Students might have to celebrate basketball beer-free if a recommendation to the East Lansing City Council is put into practice.
Looking into temporarily restricting alcohol sales in East Lansing under special circumstances was one of the recommendations made by the independent commission that reviewed the April 2-3 disturbances.
Those circumstances could include a celebratory event, such as before or after a sports game, or a disturbance.
Commission members felt alcohol plays a role in disturbances, including the 1999 Munn field riot, said Mark Meadows, East Lansing City Council member and member of the commission.
"In 1999, there were cars burning — it was a huge problem — and you would see people with cases of beer on their shoulders headed in that direction," he said.
The recommendation could apply to packaged alcohol or kegs, or could restrict sales in bars and restaurants or other sales, he said.
He added that the point of the recommendation was to get the council to think about restricting alcohol sales.
"It really calls for a study of the issue, and then pursuing it if it's determined it could be useful," Meadows said. "It didn't prejudge that this would be the right idea, just to see if it could be useful."
Geography senior Natalya Apostolou said restricting alcohol sales is not the way to curb student drinking.
"I can understand what they're trying to do, but they're going about it in completely the wrong way," she said. "Alcohol is part of the problem, but the real problem is that there's nothing to do in this town but drink."
Instead of tampering with alcohol sales, the council should bring different things for students to do into the downtown area, Apostolou said.
"They need to shift the focus from drinking and sports to culture and arts," she said.
Dan Kirby, manager of Damon's Grill at 1601 W. Lake Lansing Road, said alcohol restrictions will end up making things worse both for students and businesses.
"Not only is it going to upset students and make them retaliate, it is also going to hurt businesses," he said.
Students could also find a way around the restrictions if they were put into place in East Lansing, he said.
"If they have to drive to St. Johns to get 15 or 20 cases of beer, they will," Kirby said.
The commission wasn't "reinventing the wheel" by creating this recommendation because authorities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have placed restrictions on the sale of alcohol, Meadows said.
The mayor of Champaign is also the liquor commissioner and has the ability to make quick, short-term changes to the alcohol policy, said Mark Briggs, risk manager of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"If we feel there is a reason or need to limit those sales, we will do so," Briggs said. "We could limit the sale of kegs, or limit the sale of bottles or cans.
"If we're expecting a lot of people to empty into the streets, we don't want them to have bottles."
When the University of Illinois' men's basketball team lost the NCAA championship game to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last spring, about 10,000 -15,000 people hit the streets, with 11 arrests. Police in Illinois did not use tear gas.
The restrictions on alcohol sales were one reason for the success of that night, Briggs said.
"I don't think there's any doubt that they were an integral part of our success," he said. "We say success because we didn't make the front page of USA Today."
The East Lansing City Council is set to discuss the commission's recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday.
