A year after providing alcohol to fans who sat in the suites at Ohio State football games, the school will now sell booze to all fans at Ohio Stadium this fall.
Ohio State announced its decision to expand its beer sales Wednesday, becoming the third Big 10 school to sell alcohol in its stadium (the other two are Maryland and Minnesota). According to a 2015 New York Times article, nine Power Five schools sold beer at football games this past season.
While the alcohol will likely be consumed by fans who already had too many during a tailgate, the money is going toward some positive things. Part of the revenue will be given to the Ohio State Police Department, which plans to hire two more officers with the money. Another part of the revenue will go to the Ohio State University Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery. Any other revenue will be put in the athletic department’s general budget.
For Ohio State, and any other school that plans to sell booze at football games, the move makes sense. Attendance is down across the board in college football, and part of it is presumably due to the fact that fans can’t drink while at the game. If fans can drink, they might be more likely to go. While this puts the school at risk for certain issues, those same risks are also out in the tailgate lots and frat houses.
