Go ahead and make all the jokes you want about being a Purdue fan and drinking. Starting this season, Purdue will expand their sales of alcoholic beverages to fans to all those attending Purdue football games this season.
Purdue has been dabbling in alcoholic sales prior to this announcement, but until now those sales have been limited to premium seating areas. That tends to be the path most schools are taking when it comes to the possibility of increasing revenue opportunities with the sale of alcohol. One of the hurdles most schools are concerned about is what this means for the safety of all fans in attendance, because we all know sports fans and intoxication can lead to some ugly scenes.
“We had extensive discussions with campus police and safety and security, and what we learned is that our fans have responded very favorably to being able to purchase beer and wine on the South End Zone Patio,” Purdue vice president and athletics director Mike Bobinski said in a released statement. “The atmosphere in the South End Zone is very positive, and there have been fewer alcohol-related incidents on gamedays since its inception. As a result, in an attempt to further enhance our gameday experience and provide an additional amenity for our fans, we believe the time is right to offer this expanded opportunity.”
While the message will be focused on providing more amenities to fans, the real reason behind a decision to offer more beer and wine sales is clearly to generate revenue.
Marshall is also getting in on the act of expanded alcohol sales this fall, and they are not shying away from the financial impact they expect to benefit as a result.
“This is a continuation of our goal to provide more amenities for our fan base that makes attending Marshall Football games a more enjoyable experience,” Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick said in a released statement. “We have played a lot of winning football in our stadium over the past five years and we have great opponents such as Pittsburgh, Boise State, North Carolina State, and Navy just to name a few over the next five years, and it is imperative that the investment in our fan experience matches our football brand.”
To get an idea of how many schools are selling beer at football games, consider this map as a reference point. This map marks all of the college football programs selling beer at games as of January 2016. More have been added since this map started making the rounds, of course (for example: Ohio State, Pitt, Tulsa).
West Virginia was the pioneer in this beer revolution around the college football world when they began selling beer at concession stands in 2011. The results at West Virginia have been monitored closely by other colleges over the years and served as the benchmark and example of how to implement it to a school’s advantage. One look at the map above shows how quickly the trend is spreading, and keep in mind the growing number of other schools continuing to contemplate letting the taps flow on their campuses as well (including LSU and Penn State).
