A proposed beer garden at the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks baseball park got its first green light last week from the regional high school committee, which voted 8-1 in favor of the team’s request.
Sharks general manager Russ Curran said the team is trying to attract more Islanders to home games, which take place on high school grounds.
“We don’t get a lot of locals because they work until 6 or 7 o o’clock at night,” said Mr. Curran.
With beer added to the park’s menu of burgers and hot dogs, he said, more people might come out for a relaxing night at the ball game instead of staying home.
“We miss some people,” Mr. Curran said. “We get the question all the time: ‘Do you serve alcohol?’ ‘No,’ and then they hang up the phone.”
The team must still apply to the town of Oak Bluffs for a license to sell beer and wine.
The beer drinking area, with a view of the ball field, would be roped off from the rest of the park, he told the committee. Patrons would be limited in the number of drinks they could buy, and would have to consume them inside the roped-off area.
High school principal Sara Dingledy welcomed the proposal.
“The more we can attract locals and have community face-to-face events, the better,” Ms. Dingledy said. “I love that the school property is used for that.”
Ms. Dingledy also was not opposed to the beer sales beginning before school lets out in June, as long as they don’t take place during student hours.
“I think the games are sufficiently distanced from the school day,” she said.
School committee member Skipper Manter was the lone voice of opposition.
“I don’t think we should be endorsing something like this,” Mr. Manter said.
“We should be encouraging alcohol-free events specifically on the high school property,” he went on. “We should be leading by example for the students who are going to be there also.”
Massachusetts general law allows alcohol sales at ball parks in nonprofit leagues such as the New England Collegiate Baseball League, which the Sharks joined in 2019, Mr. Curran said.
“Almost every park in this league is a town park,” he added.
Mr. Curran also assured the committee that he will hire the appropriate number of police officers when ticket sales indicate a large number of off-Island fans coming to root against the Sharks.
“If I see I sold 500 tickets in the last hour, I’m going to make sure that detail is there,” he said.
Without imposing specific requirements, both Ms. Dingledy and high school committee chairman Amy Houghton asked Mr. Curran to continue including the high school girls’ softball field when performing maintenance and upgrades on the Shark Tank and boys’ baseball fields.
“We’ll continue to help without a doubt,” Mr. Curran said.
