Maryland officials approved a one-year pilot program today and is part of 6 of 64 power conference schools to offer alcohol sales at sporting events. I especially like this quote:
Adult fans typically grill, play cornhole and dink in the parking lots before games, Ronk said, with not-always-ideal results from people tossing back mixed drinks at noon. "People will drink less in general, and less of the hard stuff, if they can get a drink or two at games," he said.
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I know I couldn't watch Maryland play without drinking.
But I'm not sure I buy the "They'll drink less if we let them drink inside the stadium" argument. They're allowing it for the same reason everyone else does. Profits.
WVU has already implemented this and their alcohol related incidents have gone down considerably at Mountaineer Field.
Of course profit is the number 1 reason, but the results seem to suggest it might actually work.
They also stopped allowing fans to be re-admitted to the game if they leave.
So there might be some logic to it.
Well the two go hand in hand. I've never been to a sporting event that has a) alcohol sales in the stadium and b) lets fans leave at halftime and then come back in.
I've heard of drinking in parking lots. Dinking in parking lots sounds like a far more unusual activity.
Better up your tailgate game. If you ain't dinking, you sinking.
I'd like to dink in the parking lot, and the wife is probably willing but I'd be afraid of being arrested.
You dog, you!
You're an animal
HIGH FIVE!
Just keep them off the roads. Maryland drivers are already a road hazard.
Kind of makes sense, if you had to look at those god awful uniforms sober that could be defined as cruel and unusual punishment!
Beers all around!
On a side note, I wonder if Terp BBall players will request beer privileges at road games to Duke...
If they hadn't left the ACC....
I would still drink profusely in the parking lot prior to going into the game...its cheaper that way...and I'll still sneak in airplane bottles of bourbon and mix w/ coke...I don't think I would benefit from the availability of alcohol inside the stadium. All it does is give fans around me an alcoholic beverage which could potentially be spilled on me/my belongings/my family. That happens enough as it is with cokes, lemonades, and iced teas. I don't want to ride home stinking of cheap, stale beer. I, for one, don't want VT to serve alcohol at games.
I'd be fully dipped though, to see my beer on sale at Lane.
I'd be the worst of the Kardashian set, taking selfies everywhere.
Wanna know Whit Babcock's opinion?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/06/22/beer-sales-colle...
That article is revealing. Whit will wait for some success in his initial actions to take shape and then try some pilot programs for this to raise more revenue. It will happen in our lifetime!
I didn't really see his opinion in there..granted I only read 1 paragraph. It sounded more like Whit was just keeping with the norm, so to speak. Sure alcohol made sense in Cincy so they had it. No Big Deal. VT is more conservative and only sells alcohol in suites. Whit is okay with that and he has no plans to change it. That's what I got out of the blurb I read...
Given their past football attendance numbers, it could also be a ruse to get people thru the gate. They had the biggest gain among ALL Power 5 schools last year and were at 91% capacity last year.
Attendance article.
Being the first year in the Big Ten might have more to do with that than selling alcohol.
Exactly.
Their increased attendance was from Ohio State and Michigan State fans being able to see their teams locally.
Not to mention Rutgers and WVa that they played at College Park.
Yeah, about the Michigan State game. I took my dad (spartan), and the season ticket section was 70-80% spartan. By halftime, it was probably worse.
They have had trbl attendance for games for years. Even against solid ranked opponents. (Except VT. We packed it every year.) Yes, the BigTen move helped, but in order to keep the numbers up I can see the alcohol sales helping in the long run. I know several people that actually dropped their season tix once they announced the conference change. ("they want $$$, they can get it from someone else." They were more than happy playing in the ACC.) So the uptick in sales has to be either corporate, visitors, or a new way of calculating the number; ie sales vs gate.
The Big 10 alumni base in NOVA/DC/Bmore is astronomical. They love being able to see their school play and win so close to home.
Well they havn't started selling it yet.
Their attendance increases thus far are completely because of joining the Big Ten.
Decades ago, cannot for the life of me remember details, I bought beer at a UVA game at a tent in the endzone. Wish I could provide all the links and sources, but there's only that memory. I remember the next time I was there, there was no beer tent. This was back when you could leave and re-enter the stadium, not that many of those 'hoo fans bothered to come back in, mind you. Truth be told, from my standpoint, I'd forgo the Wild Turkey and crappy Coke for a good cold draft, but I don't see this as something in the immediate future for Lane. Perhaps with an attendant severe and no nonsense crackdown on liquor in the stands (how popular would that be?) it might end up being a way to cut down on the often tits up results of the current policy, but again, I don't see this as something Whit would do.