Wake Forest to Add Stadium-Wide Alcohol Sales at BB&T Field, LJVM Coliseum
"Our fans have responded favorably to being able to purchase beer and wine outside of Deacon Tower," said Wellman. "We received excellent reviews on opening Top Hat Tavern. As we examined ways to increase the fan experience at BB&T Field, making these beverages more widely available was met with a favorable response from various constituencies of our program."
Wellman and his staff consulted with other universities as well as key internal and external departments to gather feedback on best practices in serving alcohol at Wake Forest's sports venues.
"The input we gathered over the last two years assisted us in developing our policies and a plan to make this a seamless process," said Wellman.
Its worth noting Wake Forest's history as a major Southern Baptist university which strictly shied away from even officially acknowledging alcohol existed for the better part of their existence. We've seen similar ventures before by Maryland and have had our own similar discussions on this topic in the past, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the bigger picture. However, to see someone like Wake Forest, who you would expect to be one of the last to move in this direction coming out and implementing it early, I really do think its only a matter of time before alcohol sales are available in all sections in Lane and Cassell during the season.
Comments
I distinctly remember buying beer at a UVA game back in the late 70s or early 80s, one time, at a booth, then never seeing it again. We need to remember that we live in Virginia, where convoluted alcohol laws are the norm. Now when BYU starts selling alcohol at their football games, we might have a chance.
It is not just Virginia, al states have convoluted alcohol laws. They are just different.
For instance, NC, where Wake exists, recently changed the laws to allow ANY alcohol sales on Sunda. The law was changed but, you still cannot buy alcohol before noon on Sunday.
Here in PA our alcohol laws are terrible:
You're only allowed to sell beer up to 192oz in bottle shops
Anything larger (cases, kegs) must go through beer distributors
Wine and liquor can only be sold in wine/spirits stores
Grocery stores are not allowed to sell wine at all, beer must go through registers whose receipts are some high percentage of prepared foods
Gas stations cannot sell anything
I hate PA
wait wait wait wait waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiit
Hold the damn phone.... Does this mean the door has been opened for ABC Stores to be open on Sundays?
The one here in Blacksburg is already open on Sundays from 1-6
EDIT: forgot you're in NC
All Hokie fans should go and fill their stadium when they play UVA and drink all the alcohol! (and root for WF)
The last time I was at that stadium was waaaaaay too painful. Not sure that they have enough alcohol there to make me numb enough.
What an original joke
No joking there. That day blew. Hard.
I don't know, I was pretty numb at the end of that game and was stone cold sober.
That day reminds me of a scene from the movie "The Marathon Man"
I remember visiting there for the women's sweet 16, and they didn't seem to shy away from alcohol. In fact, the greek row was a block party, pick your wrist bands up and bounce from frat to frat.
Our fans aren't mature enough, or something to that effect. Or only in the high dollar section. As stated by VT's director of operations or whatever his job title.
"if you're willing to pay more for tickets, we'll sell you a $10 bud lite"- vt director of operations, probably
I actually got to sit in the West Stands Indoor club last year for a game someone's corporate tickets , and I'm happy to report that while the prices were high (not $10 BL high), they had some good craft beers. I hope they keep that for everyone
So much cheaper
Looks real.
And if he does this every weekend, it will be, eventually.
That's the fullest I've seen that stadium.
This announcement probably helped.
Well Tom Gabbard hinted at the possibility of that at Lane tonight at the Pulaski County Pig Out. This year alcohol will be available in the south end zone boxes. And he hinted at it being stadium wide as long it is received well.
Looking at their records the last few years, I can see why their fans need beer at the games.
The other teams' fans as well...
Jeez ACC drop Wake Forest to CUSA already damn
I have no real objections to permitting adults the choice to drink adult beverages at any sporting venue.
My objection, as it is to all other concessions, is the insane prices you are expected to pay.
The last time I paid for popcorn and a drink at a movie theater was a date night with the wife a couple years back. I didn't say a word, but I think she was alarmed that my eyes might pop clean out of my skull, and said she'd never buy movie concessions again.
Don't get me wrong: I completely understand that concession revenues are what generate for these facilities the revenues for upkeep and a generally small profit. I'm just a cheap bastard at heart though, and can't bring myself to pay those inflated prices on much other than a turkey leg.
I know what you mean, but though I used to feel the same way, I now get popcorn and a drink at movies. It's part of the experience for me. If I wanted to see a movie cheaply, I'd wait a month and catch it on redbox, or six months and catch it on TV.
We will bring in water, but I just cannot, nor will I, watch a movie in a theater without movie theater popcorn. It is, indeed, part of the experience, despite the cost.
I would have no problem at all to have beer for sale all around lane stadium since it would bring a lot more revenue to the school. Yea you have to worry about 21+'s buying it for underages but they are already sneaking in alcohol to begin with.
The jury is still out of it would bring in a lot of money, Minnesota lost money its first year, WVU made about 600,000 and Texas made over a million.
How do you lose money selling beer?
I think it's generally a guaranteed money maker.
Not sure how Minn did considering it had to be setup for the NFL. But for schools who have never done it the initial cost of putting in the infrastructure plus training employees, plus signage, plus hiring more police officers, plus the ABC license would cut it I first few years of revenue.
I don't know anything about what goes into selling beer at a college football game but I'm going to assume they have to pay a huge sum of money for a liquor license to sell it and there are probably state regulations requiring a certain number of law enforcement members on duty per capita for events where alcohol is sold. Added staff and licensing equals added cost. Will the alcohol sales be enough to recoup those costs? Given that prices will likely be high (and I'm sure fans will anticipate that) it wouldn't be at all surprising to me if fans who wish to consume alcohol continue to smuggle their own stuff in. They not only get to drink what they want, but they can do it much cheaper.
Agreed, alcohol at sporting events is like candy at movie theaters.
Because people buy it
I don't think selling beer and wine at games is going to stop people from tailgating or smuggling in alcohol.
I do think they'll make money selling beer to people who aren't worried about paying the cost of a draft beer in order to enjoy one at a 3 1/2 hour game on a Saturday.
VT isn't going to lose money selling beer at football and basketball games.
The cynic in me has always believed this is exactly why they changed the bag rules. Stated reason is weapons, but the convenient side effect is selling expensive alcohol.
I don't mind selling alcohol in Lane either. I think there's a few ways to mitigate the underage issue too:
1) A limit of 2 beers per purchase. That's pretty standard at most sporting events anyway, from my experience. So, that's only so many beers someone could buy for underages in one purchase.
2) Allow police to card anyone carrying an alcoholic beverage at any place in the stadium. Obviously there will be people who still take the risk, but if there's a chance that holding a beverage could get you in trouble, there's an incentive not to do so.
3) Beer sales in the stands - I know this sounds counterproductive, but I think it'd be much easier to police this. Beer guy/gal can check ID, stadium staff/police can see who's making the transaction and where it goes afterwards a little easier.
Obviously, this means more work for security staff, but if they want to do it it's possible. From personal experience too, if I'm buying beer at a game I'm going to make sure it doesn't go to waste. Alcohol in stadiums is expensive, and I'm not buying it for someone else if I can tell they're already drunk or going to spill half of it anyway. Even if it's their money - that's my time spent NOT watching football. I realize that not everybody is there to watch the game and priorities will be different though.
One of the Wake admins had an interview with News Channel 14 here in NC over the weekend, and went into detail about why they went this direction. The main reason he mentioned was that, when speaking with other schools that had gone this route, fan behavior actually improved after the start of sales, as they saw a sharp decline in people over drinking prior to games, as they knew they could continue drinking in the stadium.
Secondly, he mentioned that Wake expects to make about $100k extra in revenue over the course of the school year due to alcohol sales.
So, someone gets smashed at the game and gets pulled for DUI. "Where were you drinking?", asks the Barney Fife. "At Lane Stadium, Occifer.", responds the drunk fan. If the concession gets the blame, official drinking at Lane could be over? Sort of like a bartender saying when you have had too much.
That's why they stop selling it after certain point at all pro games the seventh-inning in baseball the fourth quarter in football etc. and what's to stop you from going out in the parking lot after the game and slamming something down?
At some point, you're responsible for your own actions.
If not necessarily aware of them.
/s
People who wanna get drunk are gonna get drunk. The convenience of being able to legally purchase a couple of beers in the stadium vs having to smuggle in liquor will appeal to a lot of fans who are already accustomed to overpaying for sodas, hot dogs and burritos, pizza and burgers, etc. Underage drinkers will continue to overdrink pre-game, and sneak in liquor to the game, this will not end regardless of sales in stadium. My game day routine included four airplane bottles of Wild Turkey, consumed one per quarter, smuggled in for decades without detection. This would have been less important to me if I could have bought a beer or two a quarter from a VT approved source. Sure, cold game days would have me smuggling, possibly, but for most game days, a few beers during the game would have replaced the whiskey quite nicely. Add in the revenue to VT, and to me it is a win-win.
Your strategy is very sound. I'm with you. I like the option of having beer during the game, and with beer sales, the program makes some cash.
You still have the option of bringing in some airplane bottles for warmth.