SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Galgiani announced today that Governor Schwarzenegger has signed her tide house exemption bill.  Assembly Bill (AB) 663 provides an exemption from the Tide House law for Banner Island Ballpark, a law that has placed restrictive limitations on advertising alcohol since the Ballpark’s opening in 2005.

The Tied-House Law is put in place to restrict any cross-ownership among the three independent players of the alcohol industry: 1) manufactures; 2) distributors/ wholesalers; and, 3) retailers.  In order to administer the Tied-House Law, the legislature generally prohibits forms of cross ownership between manufacturers and retailers, and discourages manufactures from providing anything of value to distributors or retailers, be it free goods, services or advertising.

The Tide-House law was brought to Assemblymember Galgiani’s attention by the President and General Manager of the Stockton Ports, Pat Filippone.  Filippone discovered that similar venues to Banner Island around the state had exceptions to this prohibition including Raley Field in West Sacramento and Grizzles Stadium in downtown Fresno.  The exception gave these entertainment venues the opportunity to develop partnerships with various manufacturers and distributors.

Galgiani’s bill aims to place the ballpark on equal footing with similar venues around the state and has received support from the City of Stockton.

“Since its opening in 2005, the Ballpark has been influential in the revitalization of Downtown Stockton bringing in over 205,000 fans per season” said Assemblymember Galgiani.  “Removing the regulation would provide more investment and expansion opportunities for the Stockton Ports Baseball Team to continue to succeed in bring entertainment to our city”.

AB 663 passed both legislative house with unanimous support and will go into effect January 2008.