Editor’s Note: Student Union is written by students at Brewer High School, Hermon High School, John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Searsport District High School and Stearns High School in Millinocket. The weekly column is a joint effort among the schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by a John Bapst student. Adviser is Lynn Manion.

For thousands of years, people all over the world have been watching sporting events. Today, some people watch from the comfort of their own home, but others find it more exhilarating to experience the event live from a stadium or arena. Besides watching the game in person, cheering for a favorite team, and socializing with friends, the process of waiting in line for food and something to drink makes the day complete.

The menu board at most stadiums and arenas lists the usual choices: hot dogs, pizza, cheeseburgers, soda, water and beer. Beer is one of the most common beverages on the menu at an arena or stadium. This past summer, I was had a chance to go to a game at Yankee Stadium in New York. As I walked down the halls to find my seat, I passed multiple booths selling nothing but beer.

If you go to any sporting event and look around, at least half the people you see are drinking beer. A lot of those people go back for seconds, thirds and sometimes fourths.

At home, you also see the connection between alcohol and sports. When people get together to watch the Super Bowl, the World Series or the Stanley Cup, you likely will find a few six-packs in the refrigerator. Watching a televised sporting event, it seems as though every other commercial is a sales pitch for beer. Beer companies are among the biggest supporters of sporting events. Without the beer, many people would not come to the athletic event. They would watch from their homes or the local bar, where they have access to beer.

Beer is one of the most popular beverages at sporting events, and it can bring a negative aspect to the game. After consuming too much alcohol, some people lose their self-control and start babbling, usually offending other fans or players, and sometimes resulting in flaring tempers, fights, and debris being thrown at players or onto the court or field. A perfect example: the game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 19.

Late in that game, after Indiana Pacer Ron Artest fouled Detroit Piston Ben Wallace, Wallace began shoving and pushing Artest. Artest was willing to let the incident go until fans started throwing beverages at him. When a full cup hit him on the chest, he lost it and went into the stands, where he fought with enraged fans. Was alcohol to blame? We may never know, but there is a good chance that the fans who began throwing debris at the players probably had consumed too much beer by that point in the game.

Sports and alcohol seem to go hand in hand. When I asked a fellow classmate the first thing that came to her mind when she thought of the Super Bowl or the World Series, she responded, “Beer.”

As a culture, we should think about how we promote and enjoy sporting events. Should the focus be on the beer or the contest on the court? Without the excess of beer, the athletic competition might actually become the main event.