University of Texas to Sell Alcohol at College Football Games
It's often said that everything is bigger in Texas, and now the University of Texas has approved the sale of alcohol at football games, most likely trying to land a bigger audience for Texas home games.
The approval to sell alcohol will begin this fall at Royal-Memorial Stadium, according to the Associated Press. Other UT athletic events have been selling alcohol for a while now, but athletic director Steve Patterson has finally passed the proposal.
Is this a trend that will make its way throughout college sports? Obviously, the sale of alcohol is prohibited on campus grounds for most schools, but with a huge school such as the University of Texas making this jump, it'll be a much easier decision for many other schools to begin selling alcohol.
It's a good way of generating revenue, that's a fact. From 2011-2013, the University of West Virginia had not reported making anything less than $516,000 in each of the three years. Of course, with more alcohol readily available, that'll mean more unruly behavior, right?
Not necessarily.
From those same three years, West Virginia campus police reported that the number of alcohol-related incidents had "declined sharply" at the football stadium. Mountaineer fans have had a reputation for being rowdy and rambunctious, so security disallowed anyone from returning back into the stadium should they decide to leave for whatever reasons.
Last season, SMU, North Texas, and Troy University all began selling alcohol at football games, and the University of Maryland has plans to sell alcohol beginning this upcoming season as well.
It's a touchy topic for some, as it does have the potential to lead to drunk drivers leaving football games. However, it is impossibly hard to regulate the consumption of alcohol outside the stadium (case in point, have you ever tailgated on campus for an Alabama football game?), so fans will almost always have unlimited access to alcohol in some way, shape, form, or fashion regardless.
Will this become the norm across the landscape of college football? Could it make its way into the University of Alabama and into Bryant-Denny Stadium?