November 20, 2005

To T.D. Banknorth Garden, the Boston Bruins, and Whom It May Concern:

I am writing in complaint regarding the treatment I received at last night's Boston Bruins/Buffalo Sabres hockey game, which I attended with my boyfriend. I am a 24-year-old Hurricane Katrina evacuee who is temporarily living in Boston. My boyfriend is a 30-year-old law student who is spending the semester at Boston University. We attended the game with a large group, after dinner and drinks at a local restaurant. Though we had consumed some beers, we were not drunk, rowdy, or disorderly. We were there purely to see some hockey.

Upon our entrance to the T.D. Banknorth Garden, my boyfriend and his friend purchased two beers apiece from a vendor. We proceeded immediately up the escalator, where my boyfriend decided he wanted to use the bathroom. He handed his drinks to me, and I backed up against the wall, so as not to be in the way of traffic, and waited for him. The rest of our party continued to our seats. At this point I was approached by a security guard. I was holding a full beer in my hand, and had another on the ground between my feet so it would not get knocked over by the crowd. He asked for ID. I handed my Louisiana driver's license to him. He then informed me I was underage, and asked where I'd gotten the beer. Confused, I told him I was 24, and my boyfriend, who is 30, had purchased the beer. He then told me he was taking it away. I honestly thought it was a joke. I said I would not let him, because they were my boyfriend's beers that he had just paid $8 for, and he needed to speak to him when he came out of the bathroom. He asked to see my ticket. Both tickets were in my boyfriend's pocket. When I told him this, he suggested I did not have a boyfriend and was making it up, and called for backup. At this point I attempted to call my boyfriend on his cell phone, but he did not answer because, as I have stated, he was using the bathroom.

My boyfriend came out of the bathroom, and they informed him he was serving alcohol to a minor and they needed to dump one of his beers (which the arena had sold him). I informed them I had no interest in drinking a beer, and asked if he could drink the first beer in front of them, and keep the second. They said no. My boyfriend asked to see their supervisor, a request with which they complied with great reluctance. I went to sit down. Finally, because we had already missed the entire first period, my boyfriend gave up and allowed the guards and the supervisor to dump his beer.

We thought this was the end of it, until two guards, who must have somehow followed us, since we never showed them our tickets, showed up and demanded we come with them. When we asked why, they would not tell us, but merely said we could talk about it downstairs. Needless to say, we did not wish to go, since we felt we had already been caused to miss enough of the game due to our innocent breaking of a rule we didn’t know about. Several more guards appeared, causing an embarrassing scene. They also confiscated beers purchased by another member of our party. It is worth noting that throughout the entire time in the arena, I had consumed perhaps four sips of beer, thinking I was well within my legal rights to do so, since I am 24 years of age. My boyfriend, who is a third year law student, attempted to question the guards about the relevant law as we were pushed through the concourse by what seemed an unnecessarily large number of guards and police. Not only did they seem ignorant and contradictory of what the rule actually was, they repeatedly cut him off before he had finished his sentences. I ended up screaming at them, since they insisted on talking over my attempts at normal, rational speech. When I asked what we had done wrong to warrant being thrown out, I was told that my boyfriend had served alcohol to a minor. I found this offensive in the extreme, since clearly I am neither a minor nor under the legal drinking age in the United States. We were herded out so quickly that the metal door rebounded back and hit my boyfriend in the head. This resulted in a cut that required four stitches and a tetanus shot.

The Garden is private property and this confusing alcohol policy is the law of the building. We were there by choice, having purchased tickets. I might accept that, but… why then was it not printed on my ticket? Why were we not given notice of this policy when our friend purchased our tickets? The idea that one must be 25 to possess beer with an out-of-state license is not exactly something visitors would realize on their own; in fact, the age is quite arbitrary. It is easy to see how two people who are 24 and 30 years of age, and have not had to deal with underage drinking accusations for several years now, would never even think to consider whether they were "allowed" to possess beer in an arena that ought to be used to catering to ticket holders from out of state. The Bruins are the only NHL team in Massachusetts. It does not seem, therefore, as if it behooves their building to discriminate against out-of-staters. Rather, it seems likely that they get a lot of business from visitors.

Our experience raises several questions. Why did the vendor not inform my boyfriend that even giving his beers to me to hold while he was in the bathroom would constitute eviction from the arena? Why was my first clue that I was committing a crime by holding my boyfriend's beer the harassment of two accusatory security guards, who tried to evict me from the premises without waiting for my boyfriend's return? What if I hadn't had a cell phone, and they had thrown me out? How would my boyfriend have felt if he had come out of the restroom to discover that both myself and his beers had disappeared? And what's next? Can a security guard use the excuse of private property to throw someone out because they're black? How many other fans have been needlessly hauled out of Bruins and Celtics games? According to the privileges and immunities clause of the U.S. Constitution, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because they are a resident of another state. What happened to that? I'm sure the building has very good corporate lawyers who will find a way around it, but it is no less offensive to harass well-meaning and peaceful out-of-state visitors for a policy of which they were not made aware before entering the building.

I am also confused about my "crime." Was my crime being under 25 or being from Louisiana? From what I understood, if my ID said I was from Massachusetts I could drink in the arena at age 21. Yet my boyfriend who has a Louisiana ID and is 30 was allowed to purchase beer. To confuse me even more, the first security guard threatened to throw me out because he saw me drinking. (Untrue; both beers were full and still had the foam on them.) He then backed up when I denied that I was drinking, and said it didn’t matter whether I had been drinking the beer. So what is it, drinking or possession? "You can go across the street and drink a beer, but you can't in here," said another security guard as he hauled me out. But sir, that's the issue, isn't it? I didn't come here to drink a beer. I came here to watch a hockey game, which is something I cannot do in New Orleans and was greatly looking forward to doing in Boston. In the past I have been willing to travel to attend NHL games, because I have been a huge fan since my childhood in upstate New York and I miss hockey. My boyfriend was also very excited about seeing a Celtics game, which he will now, needless to say, not be doing. We are hurt and angered by our treatment. Speaking for myself, I have never been so humiliated, which was compounded by the fact that I didn’t understand what I had done wrong. Hell, I didn't even want a beer. My boyfriend would probably have ended up drinking both beers himself, even if this ridiculous incident hadn't taken place. However, he was not given that chance, and the money he paid was not refunded.

Furthermore, why did the vendor sell my boyfriend two beers? Was it some kind of elaborate sting? Everyone in our group bought two beers, so as not to have to go back downstairs and miss the game, which ended up being a moot point because our group watched one period of the game before being thrown out. Do they sell you two so they can then follow you and harass your party? And why was I carded at all? I wasn’t being rowdy, I didn’t look suspicious. The vendors required two forms of ID from my boyfriend before selling the beers. Why then did the security guard assume I hadn't come by them legally, and ask for ID a second time? And what leap of logic led the guard to decide to throw me out immediately because I didn't have a ticket? I am sure it is common practice for one person to hold another person's ticket, just as I assume it is common practice for someone to go to the bathroom. How exactly did the guard suppose I had come to be in the upstairs of the arena, by materializing there?

This doesn't really have anything to do with Hurricane Katrina, so I apologize for playing the Katrina card for sympathy, but honestly, sometimes you reach a point where you feel as if the whole world is against you. And you didn't do anything to deserve it, but it happens anyway. And it makes you feel miserable and downtrodden, like you're from New Orleans and you're not entitled to a bit of good luck … and the world, in the form of ten large security guards throwing a skinny twenty-something woman from a hockey game, laughs in your face and jokes, "You thought you deserved to see a pro sports event? HA!"

And so, at the end of a night that was supposed to take your mind off crap like, "How will I get to graduate school classes in January with my car totaled? How will I pay for school without my lost job? Do I or do I not still have health insurance?" you end up instead crying in an ER while a resident puts four stitches in your boyfriend's head. Except you're almost laughing, because, good lord, what else is going to happen next?

I question why several security guards (upwards of ten were involved in this mess) and a real cop needed to be called in to drag a 110-pound graduate student from the arena for the obviously dangerous crime of standing quietly against a wall outside the men's bathroom with a beer between her feet. I didn't realize I constituted such a threat; it would almost be a compliment were it not so utterly absurd. We also found it slightly shady that, when we attempted to speak directly to the police officers and not security, we were informed by a security guard that we could not.

What do I want? I want an apology. I want our group's wasted money and time back. I want to never spend another cent in the City of Boston again, and I regret the unfortunate fact that I do have to eat, thus rendering this not an option. I want to go home, where the drinking age is the law and not some corporation's apparent whim, because I did not ask to be here. I am a law-abiding, polite, professional person. As such, I am not used to being harassed to the point of tears in public places for something that the average American citizen wouldn't think to consider wrong. The T.D. Banknorth Garden needs to keep in mind that they are a representative of the City of Boston. If they treat visiting fans in an insulting and degrading manner, they need to realize that those visitors have dollars that will not be spent in Boston.

Let's talk economics. There were seventeen of us, and we had purchased a group ticket package. Several people had flown in from out of state. Our group, which ranged in age from mid-20s to 30s, all had 20% discount coupons for Bruins merchandise, which some of us had planned to purchase. After my boyfriend and I were thrown out, the rest of our group was also removed from the arena for vocally expressing disbelief at the arena personnel's rude behavior. Please imagine how it felt to have a night that was pre-planned, at our expense, ruined in the incredible and ludicrous way it was. My boyfriend and I have good friends in Boston, and visit often. We make it a habit to attend sporting events in different cities when we travel, because we enjoy sports. Several members of our party were residents of Boston or its surrounding areas. We were mature, well-behaved, and knowledgeable about the game of hockey. I would describe us as model fans, the type of group the Bruins ought to be happy about attracting to their venue.

Moreover, I question the Bruins organization for the behavior of their arena personnel. Not only did they lose out on the merchandise we might have purchased, they can be assured that those of us who live in Boston won't be returning to their building anytime soon. Frankly, I can see why they're losing, since from my experience, their organization seems to be, to use a hockey term, pretty "bush league." I question why the worst team in the Northeast Division (and fifth worst team in the entire Eastern Conference, at this writing) would want to offend paying fans. I also question if this type of harassment of genuine fans is smart, especially with the NHL coming off a yearlong strike. I heard the Bruins were booed off the ice in their previous home game. I hope it happened last night too. I wouldn't know. I was not there to see.

My boyfriend and I will be returning to New Orleans next month. There's nothing there, but it's better than the "hospitality" we received here. Our city may be a pile of trash right now, but it's a classier pile of trash than Boston.

Sincerely,

Sarah L. Tolcser

2031 Commonwealth Avenue, #15

Brighton, MA 02135

sarahtolcser@hotmail.com