Milwaukee Council Approves Tobacco-Free Baseball – 12 of 30 MLB Stadiums Will Be Tobacco-Free
Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
November 22, 2016
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Adding momentum to the national campaign to take tobacco out of baseball, the Milwaukee Common Council today voted to prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco products (like chew, dip and snuff) at the city’s sports venues, including Miller Park, home of the Brewers. Today’s vote sends a simple and powerful message to kids: baseball and tobacco don’t mix.
Milwaukee’s vote follows the first-ever World Series games played in a tobacco-free environment, Wrigley Field, and the Chicago Cubs are the first World Champions to play day-in and day-out in a tobacco-free ballpark. Today’s 14-1 vote reaffirms that our national pastime should be about promoting a healthy and active lifestyle, not a deadly and addictive product, and that doing so is not only good for America’s kids, it is good for baseball.
Milwaukee joins the growing number of Major League cities to take tobacco out of baseball for the sake of kids, the players and the future of the game. Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco have also enacted laws prohibiting tobacco use at sports venues, including their professional baseball stadiums. Washington, D.C., has approved similar legislation, which awaits the mayor’s signature. A statewide law in California will take effect before the 2017 season. Once all of these laws are implemented, 12 of the 30 Major League stadiums will be tobacco-free.
As more cities take action, it’s time for Major League Baseball and its players to set the right example for kids and agree to a complete ban on smokeless tobacco at all Major League ballparks as part of the new collective bargaining agreement they are negotiating.
We applaud and thank Alderman Michael Murphy and his colleagues for their leadership in helping advance this worthy cause. We look forward to Mayor Tom Barrett signing the measure into law.
For more information, visit www.tobaccofreebaseball.org.