Six Flags Over Texas proposed last year to bring alcohol to its Arlington location — a bad idea.
If Six Flags geared toward adults only, selling alcohol would be great, but it’s a family-oriented park. Most of its rides have a height requirement, for Pete’s sake.
Six Flags proposes to serve alcohol in six monitored areas: All American Café, Casa de la Banderas, Dry Hole Charlie’s, Gator McGee’s Mountain Grill, Johnny Rockets and Papa John’s.
It will evict patrons who take their alcoholic beverages out of those areas.
Children can still eat at these locations. Six Flags will rely on video cameras and its employees to monitor the areas.
It’s good that the company has a plan to monitor, but what happens when people sneak their alcohol out?
Six Flags cannot keep alcohol from affecting its child patrons.
Adults could buy alcohol for their underage friends. A curious child could experiment with imbibing a mostly empty beer cup he or she fished out of the trash.
Parents, trying to get cool points, could let their kids try a beer.
What happens when a child’s parents drink a few beers before the park closes and drive home?
Maybe parents are fine after two beers and make it home without incident, but that chance should not be taken.
Forget about underage drinking for a minute.
Let’s say, on a slim-to-none chance, Six Flags has a flawless monitoring system and no minor ever gets his or her hands on alcohol. What about the adults who are drinking?
People drink and fight at bars all the time. Now they can drink and fight at an amusement park densely crowded with children.
Now let’s say only pacifists will consume the illicit beverage and never start a fight. Who will stop patrons from getting rip-roaring drunk?
Not only does drinking alcohol set an awful example to the kids populating the park, but it places everyone on the road in danger when these people attempt to get their sloshed selves home.
Will the park assign employees to drive these people home?
Texas had one of the highest percentages in the country of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2007 with 1,292 deaths.
Now consider the ick factor. Bar patrons frequently drink more than their limit and end up puking in the bathroom. An increase in vomiting at the park is not appealing.
Six Flags may create a potentially dangerous situation, and the proposal nears approval.
As of Feb. 25, TABC administrator Alan Steen and administrative law judge Tanya Cooper have both signed off on the idea.
Citizens have 20 days from that date to file a motion for another hearing with the TABC commissioner.
