More schools selling beer at football games
Offering alcohol in college football stadiums has become increasingly attractive as schools look for ways to lure fans. A fan hoists a beer during a game at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Walk through the tailgate area at a college football stadium, and beer drinking is as common a sight as fans adorned in jerseys of their favorite players.
More schools are bringing the party inside, opening taps in concourses that traditionally have been alcohol-free zones.
North Texas, SMU and Troy University will begin beer sales to the general public this season. They’re among 21 on-campus football stadiums where any fan of legal age can grab a brew. That’s more than twice as many as five years ago.
Most schools continue to keep alcohol restricted to premium seating areas, if they allow it at all. But offering alcohol is increasingly attractive for some campuses, especially for cash-strapped athletic departments outside the Power 5 conferences. Those schools, especially, are looking for ways to keep fans coming to their stadiums instead of sitting in front of their HD TVs at home or at sports bars.
They’re also encouraged by the schools that were among the first to sell alcohol and didn’t report an increase in bad behavior from students and other fans.
"Every institution is looking at how they can increase revenue streams, and alcohol is one of those," said Jeff Schemmel, president of the consulting firm College Sports Solutions LLC. "Everything is on the table."
There are 11 municipal stadiums (including Aloha Stadium in Hawaii) where FBS teams are tenants and alcohol is available to the general public. The municipality usually keeps most, if not all, of the alcohol proceeds. The NCAA does not sell alcohol to the general public at its championship events. Schools and conferences are allowed to make their own policies.
| WHO’S SELLING THE SUDS? College football stadiums where alcohol will be sold to the general public this season: Campus stadiums (21): Akron, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Houston, Kent State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisville, Minnesota, Nevada, North Texas, SMU, Syracuse, Toledo, Troy, Tulane, UNLV, UTEP, Western Kentucky, West Virginia Off-campus stadiums (11): Connecticut, Georgia State, Hawaii, Massachusetts (3 games at Gillette Stadium), Memphis, Miami, San Diego State, South Alabama, South Florida, Temple, Texas-San Antonio |
According to an Associated Press survey of the 21 beer-selling schools that own and operate their stadiums, about half their concessions revenue is derived from alcohol. All but four of those schools are in conferences outside the Power 5 that don’t earn significant television money.
Troy Athletic Director John Hartwell estimated beer would bring his Alabama school about $200,000 in commissions this season. According to its contract with concessionaire Sodexo, Troy will receive 43 percent of gross beer sales at its 30,000-seat stadium, or better than $2 for every $5 beer.
"That’s more impactful to a bottom line for a Troy than it is for a Texas or West Virginia or institutions similar to that," said Hartwell, whose program runs on a $20 million budget. Alcohol proceeds will be used to pay debt on a $25 million expansion of Troy’s football facilities.
The Big 12’s West Virginia, with a budget of more than $80 million, began beer sales in 2011 in part to counter a problem with drunken fans coming and going from tailgate parties during games. Fans no longer are allowed to re-enter the stadium once they leave.
Beer sales have produced no less than $516,000 each of the last three years for West Virginia, and campus police report alcohol-related incidents at Mountaineer Field have declined sharply.
Eric Olson, Associated Press
