Half Dime Beer Night

Half Dime Beer Night was a prolonged riot and occupation of the Football Club (FC) Khonestazh Frogmen Stadium as a result of an All-Velorenkan Football Federation (A-VFF) promotion that offered 4% RevBev beer at a discounted rate of five cents from May 4th-6th, 1970. Ticket sales at FC Khonestazh’s Frogmen Stadium in Khonestazh, Velorenkya, had seen a steady decline in the playing season of 1969 and the start of 1970. The half dime promotion was an extraordinary discount at a time when beer was normally sold for half a dollar. RevBev Cooperative partnered with FC Khonestazh to offer the discount promotion for the Friday night game against the FC Marhtic Riveters to boost attendance. There was a limit of five beers per purchase, however no limit on how many purchases could be made, despite a recommendation from Food Product Workers' Syndicate members on the city labor council that a limit be established.

During the game fans increasingly got intoxicated and disorderly, leading to several disruptions in the form of food and debris being thrown onto the field as well as streakers. Following half time, a riot began that led to the referees declaring the game a tie, the stadium’s occupation for two nights, and the declaration of the Commune of Frogs. Ultimately on Sunday order was restored and the stadium retook by local elements of the Blue Guards Militia in conjunction with officers of the Main Office for Arekh Security (MOAS).

=Background= Similar promotions had been held at other stadiums throughout the Arekh largely without incident. Though there was a notable uptick in police bookings for drunken disorderly conduct or reckless driving while under the influence in cities where these promotions happened.

Prior to Half Dime Beer Night there was no major rivalry between the FC Khonestazh Frogmen and the FC Marhtic Riveters. The football clubs are sponsored by the Reborn Arekh Navy base at Khonestazh and the Metal and Machinery Workers Syndicate aircraft plant in Marhtic respectively. A major brawl had broken out between the Frogmen and Riveters during a game in Marhtic that season and stadium security had been forced to intervene. In addition, the Frogmen were jeered by the crowd and pelted with food, several players needing to be restrained to prevent them from facing off with Riveter fans. This fight led to a nascent outburst of rivalry and antagonism between both teams, despite none existing prior.

In the city of Khonestazh, there was ongoing social anxiety over a recent economic downturn. Shipbuilding for the Arekh Navy at Khonestazh had seen a pause as the navy waited for new technology and designs to be approved before restarting production. This led to several thousand workers of the Ship and Boat Building Syndicate temporarily without work and forced to live of public assistance wages. A recent corruption scandal had also rocked the city, with both the city chairman and treasurer convicted for embezzlement by the MOAS. Counter-establishment groups such as the anarcho-revivalist Students for a Free Society (SFS) and the Situationalist Association had recently grown in popularity within Khonestazh as part of the greater Velorenkan wide “Second Rebirth”. These groups had been agitating and protesting against the Revivalist League political machine within the city since news of the corruption scandal broke.

These factors: antagonism between the teams, job insecurity, the corruption scandal, and counter establishment agitators when coupled with greatly discounted beer set the stage for the events of Half Dime Beer Night. And given the history of Khonestazh, which traces its radical revolutionary activity to the start of the Revivalist Revolution, the game quickly got out of hand. =Game=

Initial disturbances
The half dime beer promotion brought about 25,000 fans into the stadium itself, with several thousand more tail gating outside. This was nearly twice the expected turnout. Privately hired security and local police only provided a force of 65 personnel. From the start issues arose after an intoxicated female fan rushed the field ten minutes into the first quarter, exposing her breasts to the players to show off the frog she had painted on her chest. Security would be unable to detain her, however several fully naked streaker college students would not be as fast, the second quarter temporarily pausing as they were detained by security. Seven minutes into the second quarter the game was tied at 2—2. The Frogmen would score a third goal; however, it was promptly overturned by the referees for a foul by the Riveters. This led to several FC Marhtic players getting pelted by an estimated 25 pounds of hotdogs and countless empty beer cans. Later foul calls on the Frogmen would lead to a further outpour of beer cans and fireworks being sent towards the Riveters.

Capture of the beer trucks
During half-time the RevBev employees would be unable to keep up with the demand for beer as there were just too many fans. Fans began to agitate and call for the distribution of beer directly from the beer trucks to the fans. The RevBev employees were greatly outnumbered by fans and after threats of violence exited the stadium, leaving the beer trucks behind. Fans seized the beer trucks in what has been coined by the Khonestazh city press as the "seizure and redistribution of the means of beer distribution directly to the drunkards". Beer had already been extremely cheap; people were now able to get it for free. Some fans didn't even bother refilling up their cups, simply hauling kegs back up into the stands to view the game.

Riot
By the beginning of the fourth quarter neither team had yet to score a goal and they continued to tie. However with an unruly and extraordinarily intoxicated crowd, the situation would finally boil over. A streaker on the field threw an empty keg at FC Marhtic goalie Aeron Choval. A fatigued Choval was unable to dodge the keg and was struck in the stomach. With his star goalie attacked, FC Marhtic coach Lyamen moved to confront the fan, with several of his players following behind. Many inebriated fans then invaded the field to confront the Riveters team, many armed with fireworks, pocketknives, broken bottles, and clubs brandished from seats they had ripped out of the stands. Fearing for the safety of their rival team, the Khonestazh Frogmen were ordered into action by their head-coach and charged their fans to back up the Riveters. An all-out brawl reminiscent of a bar fight broke out on the field. Security was unable to contain the outpour of violence as more fans surged onto the field and evacuated the teams from the stadium. The game was officially declared over, with a tie of 2-2.

=Stadium occupation= Though the game had ended, radio announcers continued to broadcast and comment on the unfolding riot. Tail gaters from outside the stadium began to file in, joining in on the spontaneous drunken celebrations inside. Once news broke of the fact that beer was effectively being handed out for free, several outside groups decided to take part in the riot. The anti-establishment Students for a Free Society and the Situationist Association local chapters, both collections of young radical revivalists, counter-cultural intellectuals, and avant-garde artists, had conceitedly been in the progress of joint meeting to discuss further protests. The Situationist Association had brought with them to the meeting a very large cache of psychedelic drugs as a gift to the SFS. When news of the unfolding riot at Frogmen Stadium reached the twin counter-establishment groups, a motion was unanimously passed to head to the stadium and partake in the “revolutionary spontaneity”. A former SFS member recalled that a Situationist had declared quite passionately that “A second revolutionary situation has presented itself in Khonestazh within this century. Such a situation will be squandered if we do not act like our forefathers did in 1920.”

Declaration of the Commune of Frogs
That night the Situationists, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, commandeered the announcer booth at the stadium and declared the Free and Passionate Khonestazh Stadium Commune of Frogs and their intention to see through the "free dissemination and association of enjoyment in protest and secession from the ruling party". They declared the ruler of the Commune of Frogs to be the lazh of the Arekh, with a hastily assembled intoxicated passionary committee ruling in their absence. This committee narrowly passed a contentious and heated decree that nominated a pet frog brought in by a SFS member to be the provisional chairman. Local police did not have the numbers to expunge the drunken fans and counter-establishment elements from the stadium, solidifying the occupation.

Though many of the drunk fans of the game had slowly filed out of the stadium, around 1,000 persons would continue to reside in the stadium by Saturday morning. Attempts by the police to retake the stadium would be repulsed, as they had significantly underestimated the number of protesters that occupied it. College students sympathetic to the cause of the Commune of Frogs, or simply seeking excitement would steadily join the occupation of the stadium throughout Saturday. Bringing with them further kegs of beer, psychedelic drugs, and musical instruments. After the initial repellent of the police the stadium occupation would be bolstered by several hundred more people. The day after the game would largely be described as a festival, with occupiers inside the stadium freely associating, putting on concerts and mock plays, and partaking in all manner of vices from drinking to sexual entanglement. Most occupiers of the stadium were not radicals and instead sought out the free booze, drugs, and prospects of sex. The small cadre of Situationists and SFS members however viewed the occupation and formation of the Commune of Frogs as the initial phase of a new political revolution realizing their anarcho-revivalist avant-garde designs for the Arekh.

By Saturday evening news had reached the Northern Veloren Sadhravi government. The chairman of the Sadhravi Passionary Council and the lazh appointed lieutenant governor disagreed over how to handle the occupation. The chairman argued for the immediate need for communal, Sadhravi, and Arekh law enforcement units to be deployed and restore order, fearing an insurrection. The lieutenant governor stressed caution and refused to authorize MOAS agents to be used against what he saw as a legitimate, albeit out of hand expression of the people’s right to associate and protest. Worries of violence or fatalities resulting if he acted without Arekh support, the chairman barred hastily mobilized Sadhravi Blue Guards Militia and communal police from attempting to retake the stadium a second time.

Retaking of the stadium
Though protests and violence were largely secluded to the Stadium itself, there had been minor incidents of looting and the burning of police cars in the greater city of Khonestazh on Saturday night. These incidents convinced the lieutenant governor of the need to end the occupation and approved the usage of Main Office for the Arekh Security Ozyns internal troops in conjunction with Sadhravi Blue Guards Militia.

On Sunday morning militiamen deployed teargas, fired live warning shots, and advanced on the occupiers of the stadium with bayonets as MOAS security personnel swept forth to conduct arrests. Occupiers attempted to sway or dissuade the militiamen and MOAS officers by offering free beers and psychedelic drugs, to no avail. Some attempted to fight back with the stadium seat fashioned clubs and several firebombs were thrown to little effect. Miraculously no lives were lost, but with the violence of the initial riot, attempts by police to retake the stadium the next morning, and heavy-handed tactics by Main Office for the Arekh Security and Blue Guards Militia to restore order, over 150 people had to be checked into hospitals with major injuries. An additional 300 or so were checked in with minor injuries, though the number of non-critical wounded is estimated to be much higher.

=Aftermath= The violence and chaos of Half Dime Beer Night at FC Khonestazh Frogmen Stadium captured the audience of the Velorenkan nation and catapulted the message of the Situationists into the greater public's attention. It's theorized this would later help their recruitment and embolden further protests by the Situationist Association, cementing their movement and ideology and allowing it to survive to this day. Moreover, the game would bring about an increase of ticket sales for both the Football Club Khonestazh and Marhtic. The shared experience between both teams fending off drunken fans would lead to the antagonistic rivalry turning into a much friendly one.

For the All-Velorenkan Football Federation, RevBev Cooperative, and Khonestazh communal government, Half Dime Beer Night was viewed as a major embarrassment and public relations disaster. Though the game increased future ticket sales, the riot and resulting occupation led to a general increase in security at sports venues nationwide and put a stop to further promotions until very recently. The fallout of the stadium occupation led to the general collapse of the Khonestazh Revivalist League political machine and the communal government’s take over by more anarcho-revivalist parties and organizations for a decade.

The game itself and following stadium occupation has been the subject of several movies, plays, and various songs within Velorenkya and the saying half dime beer night has entered the national lexicon to describe a chaotic or out of control situation.