What Could Go Wrong?

[BD80]

"Maryland considering alcohol sales at athletic events"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/25149298/maryland-considering-alcohol-sales-at-athletic-events

Is this an April Fools joke?

That would be like giving Philly fans rocks as they enter the stadium.

[devildeac]

"Maryland considering alcohol sales at athletic events"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/25149298/maryland-considering-alcohol-sales-at-athletic-events

Is this an April Fools joke?

That would be like giving Philly fans rocks as they enter the stadium.

Or snowballs...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Philadelphia_Eagles_season

[westwall]

"Maryland considering alcohol sales at athletic events"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/25149298/maryland-considering-alcohol-sales-at-athletic-events

Is this an April Fools joke?

Evidently NOT: "The proposal originated with Maryland students. . . "

[MCFinARL]

Rumor has it there is an excess supply of old couches in College Park that need to be burned--fueling potential couch burners with alcohol was an obvious solution.

[uh_no]

debbie Yow ran the athletics department into major financial difficulty...one of the main reasons they were effectively forced to make the jump to the big 10. further, many of the attendence problems in college could be solved by alcohol at events...not that it wouldn't create OTHER problems...

[hurleyfor3]

many of the attendence problems in college could be solved by alcohol at events...not that it wouldn't create OTHER problems...

To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems!

There are definitely college arenas out there, on-campus ones even, where alcohol is served. People in skyboxes at the Final Four were observed with booze. (At least one person not in a skybox smuggled some in.) It's not some sort of ncaa regulation.

[sagegrouse]

To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems!

There are definitely college arenas out there, on-campus ones even, where alcohol is served. People in skyboxes at the Final Four were observed with booze. (At least one person not in a skybox smuggled some in.) It's not some sort of ncaa regulation.

I think it may be... the concession stands in Indy did not serve beer, which would have tasted really good!

[Bluedog]

To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems!

There are definitely college arenas out there, on-campus ones even, where alcohol is served. People in skyboxes at the Final Four were observed with booze. (At least one person not in a skybox smuggled some in.) It's not some sort of ncaa regulation.

The NCAA bans the sale of alcohol at its championship events. I was listening to a podcast that interviewed Oliver Luck (former AD at WVU and father of Andrew) and he argued that somewhat counter intuitively offering alcohol at football games REDUCED alcohol related problems. The rationale is that without alcohol at the game, students feel the need to get plastered ahead of time and quickly before the game, so they seriously binge drink, but spread out the drinking more if it's allowed at the game. Found it an interesting viewpoint... He said police involvement in alcohol related incidents on football Saturdays were reduced after allowing alcohol sales in the stadium.

[-jk]

The NCAA bans the sale of alcohol at its championship events. I was listening to a podcast that interviewed Oliver Luck (former AD at WVU and father of Andrew) and he argued that somewhat counter intuitively offering alcohol at football games REDUCED alcohol related problems. The rationale is that without alcohol at the game, students feel the need to get plastered ahead of time and quickly before the game, so they seriously binge drink, but spread out the drinking more if it's allowed at the game. Found it an interesting viewpoint... He said police involvement in alcohol related incidents on football Saturdays were reduced after allowing alcohol sales in the stadium.

I think we're focusing on the wrong attendees. How many students are old enough to buy a drink at a game?

-jk

[MartyClark]

debbie Yow ran the athletics department into major financial difficulty...one of the main reasons they were effectively forced to make the jump to the big 10. further, many of the attendence problems in college could be solved by alcohol at events...not that it wouldn't create OTHER problems...

Louisville sells beer, wine and hard liquor at games in the Yum Center. The University of Colorado does not allow beer sales in the arena BUT you can walk down a flight of stairs, through the athletic offices and into the practice gym where they sell beer and food.

I enjoy having a beer at a game but the Maryland proposal doesn't sound good.

[SCMatt33]

I think we're focusing on the wrong attendees. How many students are old enough to buy a drink at a game?

-jk

Probably a significant amount. Admittedly, this is a flawed calculation, but if we assume equal distibution of classes at a game, equal distribution of birthdays among classes, and assume that the vast majority of students started college after their 18th birthday, you'd have all seniors and about 25-50% or juniors able to depending on when in the season the game is. That would make it roughly 30-40% of all students at a game are able to drink. I don't know how Maryland's student tickets are handed out. If it's a first come, first served system like Duke, it will skew younger, as older students have experienced games before and are less likely to wait in long lines than their youngers counterparts. If it's a points or loyalty based system, it will skew older, especially for big games as younger students haven't had as much time to accrue loyalty points or something similar.

I also tend to agree with the analysis that serving alcohol reduces the effect of drunkeness at games. College students don't have the best thinking in terms of planning ahead, so they will often get wasted prior to games, and even more so when they know that whatever they drink has to last them throughout the game. Also, it is highly likely that only beer would be served at a game, which is probably much lighter than what many pregame with now of try to sneak in to a game.

Either way, I don't think student drunkeness will be heavily affected by beer sales overall. College students who want to be drunk will find a way to get drunk. You might as well let the non-students at the game have a beer, too.