02/19/2018
The 67th NBA All-Star Game on February 18, 2018 brought the incredible skills of the league’s best players together for an unforgettable night. For Nathan Soto, the Orlando Magic Designated Driver for the Season, his trip to the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, CA were the result of being the first prize winner of the “Responsibility Has Its Rewards” sweepstakes for designated drivers. Soto, a resident of Kissimmee, FL, was named “Designated Driver for the Season” for the Magic. All 30 NBA teams selected a Designated Driver for the Season. Mr. Soto was the lucky one randomly selected to represent the more than 68,000 responsible NBA fans who pledged to be designated drivers last season.
Throughout the three days of All-Star festivities 633 NBA fans pledged to be Good Sports by drinking responsibly and always having a designated driver. All who participated signed the responsibility wall and smiled for a souvenir photo. Fans shared their digital photos and the responsibility message by posting photos on Facebook and Twitter. The 255 photos taken during the All-Star weekend were viewed a total of 1,288 times, an average of 5 views per photo.
The “Responsibility Has Its Rewards” sweepstakes grand prize winners from the 2016-2017 NBA season were Veronica Bem and Mitchell Mathews. Mathews was named “Designated Driver for the Season” for the Golden State Warriors and Bem was selected to represent the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mathews attended Game one of The Finals 2017 and Bem attended Game 3. Good Sports pledge to drink responsibly and always have a designated driver.
The top five NBA teams for designated drivers at the end of the 2016-2017 season were:
- Dallas Mavericks with 10,189 designated drivers
- Oklahoma City Thunder with 9,556 designated drivers
- Houston Rockets with 7,617 designated drivers
- Charlotte Hornets with 7,494 designated drivers
- Milwaukee Bucks with 5,095 designated drivers
Anheuser-Busch has led our industry in promoting responsible drinking for more than 35 years, and the Budweiser Good Sport program reminds fans who choose to drink to do so responsibly and get their friends home safely. We all share the same streets after the game. This partnership with the National Basketball League, TEAM and the fans displays our collective responsibility to help keep our roads safe.Katja Zastrow, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility-Better World, Anheuser-Busch
The success of the Responsibility Has Its Rewards campaign with the NBA is a direct result of the commitment from the league, the teams and all the campaign partners. Teamwork is what this campaign is all about. We are demonstrating that when everyone – including the fans – takes responsibility, everyone wins.Jill Pepper, Executive Director, TEAM Coalition
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch and its employees build on a legacy of corporate social responsibility by focusing on three key areas: promoting alcohol responsibility, preserving and protecting the environment and supporting local communities. In the past three decades, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers have invested more than $1 billion in preventing drunk driving and underage drinking and promoting responsible retailing and advertising. Anheuser-Busch reduced total water use at its breweries by nearly 50 percent over the last 10 years. The company has been a leading aluminum recycler for more than 30 years. Each year Anheuser-Busch and its Foundation invest approximately $20 million in donations to charitable organizations that help in local communities. The company also has provided over 76 million cans of emergency drinking water to people impacted by natural and other disasters since 1988. Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch, the leading American brewer, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the leading global brewer. For more information, visit
www.anheuser-busch.com.
TEAM Coalition
TEAM Coalition is an alliance of professional and collegiate sports, entertainment facilities, concessionaires, stadium service providers, the beer industry, distillers, broadcasters, traffic safety experts and others working together to promote responsible drinking and positive fan behavior at sports and entertainment facilities. TEAM Coalition members and supporters include National Basketball Association, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, National Football League, National Hockey League, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Americrown, Aramark, Delaware North Sportservice, Legends, Spectra, Beer Institute, National Beer Wholesalers Association, Constellation Brands, HEINEKEN USA, MillerCoors, Brown-Forman, Live Nation, National Association of Broadcasters, Contemporary Services Corporation, International Association of Venue Managers, Stadium Managers Association and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For more information visit
www.TEAMCoalition.org or
www.FansDontLetFansDriveDrunk.org.
(L to R):
Jackson Magnini, TEAM Coalition; Jerome Pickett, National Basketball League; Giovanna Monroe, guest of winner; Nathan Soto, Responsibility Has Its Rewards Sweepstakes Winner; Abeer Klosk, National Basketball League
US DOT / NHTSA 2016 NATIONAL DATA:
• In 2016, 10,497 people were killed as a result of alcohol-related (BAC > 0.08) car crashes, an increase of 1.7% from the 10,265 fatalities in 2015.
• Many, if not most of those lives would have been saved if people did not drive when they were impaired by alcohol or if they used sober, designated drivers or if they simply wore their seat belts.
• Statistics and research clearly show that 21-34 year old males are the demographic most likely to be involved in an automobile crash, drive when impaired by alcohol, and fail to buckle up.
Author: jacksonteamcoalition
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