The Staples Center in Los Angeles is the latest venue in the U.S. to join the Good Sport program — an anti-drunk driving program that encourages fans to safely travel to games with the help of a designated driver.

The program is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch and will be implemented by Staples Center staff along with the help of concessionaire Levy Restaurants. The program has been implemented at several other venues in the U.S. that contract with Anheuser-Busch including the Target Center in Minneapolis and RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

The Good Sport program is essentially a new twist on an old concept. Venues have been working for decades to implement designated driver programs and curb DUIs. What distinguishes the Good Sport program is that it uses new Internet marketing tools to monitor designated drivers and offer them incentives to return to the game — often as a repeat designated driver.

Here’s how it works: Fans visit their home venues, in this case the Staples Center, and sign up to participate in the program. After filling out a survey with their contact information, including e-mail address, the fan signs a document agreeing not to consume any alcohol during the event. The fan is then given vouchers for a complimentary non-alcoholic drink and free food item.

“What separates us from other programs is that we can then use their information to track who is attending the games and continually committing to be a designated driver,” said Michael Klume, who helps administer the program for Anheuser-Busch. “The Good Sport program then shares this information with the venue, and they can make targeted offerings to fans who regularly act as designated drivers.”

Each time a fan agrees to be a designated driver, that information is entered into the computer system, Klume said. Fans can earn rewards by continually signing up to be designated drivers, including free tickets to game suites, team merchandise and meet and greets with players.

“A lot of people ask why we would want to track and reward non-consumers — people who don’t buy anything,” Klume said. “For starters, there is a clear need for more designated drivers to safely transport fans. Secondly, it allows us to make unique concession offers to a certain segment of fan who might not want to spend money on alcohol, but is interested in other types of consumer goods.”

The second component of Good Sport is public awareness. Anheuser-Busch helps design public service announcements, which can be broadcast during games, encouraging fans to drink responsibly. The announcements include video segments broadcast on arena scoreboards, LED segments that interact with advertisements and facility signage.

The other component of the awareness campaign is training employees to help implement alcohol awareness programs and prevent and monitor alcohol related incidents.

“We work with a lot of our concession workers, ushers and security personnel and train them how to look for problems before they happen,” said Jeff Rosenthal at Levy Restaurants. “A lot of the work we do is a continued education with our employees to identify signs of intoxication and prevent sales to people who have obviously had too much to drink.”

Rosenthal said his managers post warnings of obvious signs of drunkenness in each booth — out of sight of the customers, but in clear view of the vendor’s cash device.

“The Staples Center has always tried to ensure that guests attending our events feel that they are in a safe environment and can truly enjoy their experience from beginning to end,” said Lee Zeidman, Staples Center general manager. “The Good Sport program allows our staff to team up with our concessions partners to ensure responsible alcohol service and consumption at every event for all our guests.”

The Staples Center is the second National Basketball Association arena in the U.S. to implement the program, following the lead of the Target Center.

“We’re really happy with the results of the program thus far,” said Dan Jackson, head of security at the Target Center. “Alcohol related incidents seem down, although I don’t have any data to back this up. I think the PSAs have helped a lot. When you continually remind people to use a designated driver, that resonates with people who are drinking and reminds them to be responsible in general.”

Jackson said he has worked with the Target Center’s promotions department to design a contest to provide two courtside tickets for up to four games to the fan that signs up the most times to be a designated driver.

“These are the people we want to attract to the game,” Jackson said. “They bring people to the game, they fill up the seats and they encourage other people in their group who are consuming alcohol to act responsibly and behave.” — Dave Brooks


Michael Klume, (314) 577-2626; Jeff Rosenthal, (213) 742.7450; Lee Zeidman, (213) 742-7255; Dan Jackson, (612) 673-1319