May 31, 2019 · 2:00 PM

Booze 1, Bible Belt 0

Too much money being left on the table…

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UPDATE:  One more thing…

I can see it now:  Bud Light, the official beer of Georgia’s Magill Society!

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63 Comments

Filed under I'll Drink To That, SEC Football

63 responses to “Booze 1, Bible Belt 0”

  1. Corch Irvin Meyers New USC Trojans Corch (2020)
    May 31, 2019 at 2:03 PM

    It may not happen with the next contract, but this ruling just put the nail into the Cocktail Party’s coffin.

    With the ability to sell alcohol on campus, there’s suddenly one more reason to put Georgia-Florida on campus. At least on a rotational basis.

    Like

      • 79Dawg
        May 31, 2019 at 2:54 PM

        To a point tangentially related to Corch’s, will this permit alcohol sales at neutral-site SEC games (i.e., WLOCP and SEC Championship) in non-club areas??? Inquiring minds want to know…
        Obviously, given the infrastructure in these NFL stadiums, it will be much easier to implement alcohol sales…

        Like

    • JCDawg83
      May 31, 2019 at 2:20 PM

      I guess you’ve never actually been to the Georgia/Florida game as a spectator.

      Like

    • Paul
      May 31, 2019 at 2:20 PM

      Corch, I’m not sure too many people qualify for the ‘opportunity’ to purchase alcohol since the minimum required contribution to do so is $100,000. Not to mention that the alcohol sales area can only hold 400 people at a time. That’s not the kind of revenue that will pull the game out of Jacksonville. I’m not sure why I’m attempting to explain this to you since you clearly don’t understand the culture in South Georgia nor the amount influence that culture has on UGA football. That game ain’t leaving Jacksonville. Get over it.

      Like

      • Corch Irvin Meyers New USC Trojans Corch (2020)
        May 31, 2019 at 2:28 PM

        You didn’t read the fine print, did you?

        This is alcohol sales to EVERYONE. Meaning, us peons on the 100 and 300 and 600 levels going to a concession stand, getting a watery light beer, and taking them back to our seats.

        Like

        • zramz
          May 31, 2019 at 2:56 PM

          All it does is allows for the individual member institutions to make their own decision.
          I think Sanford will go stadium wide in a year or two.

          Like

          • Gaskilldawg
            May 31, 2019 at 5:31 PM

            zramx, I respect your opinion but I disagree. I do not think McGarity and the board are inclined to sell beer in every concourse for the next several years. I suspect it will be used as an incentive to join the Magill Society

            Like

        • JCDawg83
          May 31, 2019 at 3:09 PM

          If the SEC allows alcohol sales at games and the Georgia/Florida game is an SEC game, why couldn’t alcohol be sold in Jacksonville? Your point about alcohol sales affecting the location of the game is lost on me.

          Like

          • Gaskilldawg
            June 1, 2019 at 2:22 PM

            The SEC didn’t “allow alcohol sales…” It allowed SEC schools to make the decision whether to sell alcohol at their games. If neither UGA or UF want beer sales at TWLOCP the SEC is fine with there being no beer at TWLOCP.

            Like

        • Paul
          May 31, 2019 at 4:58 PM

          Corch, this is not a decision that was arrived at overnight. UGA and every other SEC institution has known for quite some time it was going to happen. Theses things get talked to death before a decision is reached. McGarity and company had full knowledge before deciding only 400 people who had contributed a minimum of $100,000 each would get the opportunity to imbibe inside Sanford stadium.

          Like

    • Hogbody Spradlin
      May 31, 2019 at 3:54 PM

      SINCE WHEN DID A SINGLE LAW OR REGULATION AFFECT ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AT THE WLOCP? All caps intentional.

      Like

  2. ApalachDawg
    May 31, 2019 at 2:07 PM

    Jesus’ first miracle for the WIN!
    Now if we can just Sunday alcohol sales – statewide…

    Like

    • Biggen
      May 31, 2019 at 3:37 PM

      Living in north Florida these ridiculous “Bible Belt laws” are lost in me. We can purchase 24x7x365.

      Like

      • Doug
        May 31, 2019 at 3:45 PM

        When I moved to California about three and a half years ago, I was stunned and elated to find that not only can you buy hard liquor 24x7x365 out here, you can buy it at grocery stores and Target. And then we legalized weed across the board. I’ve been enjoying myself out here.

        Liked by 1 person

        • KornDawg
          May 31, 2019 at 3:55 PM

          When I arrived in 29 Palms in 1991, one of the first things I remember, other than the blanket of smog flying into LAX, was being amazed at the availability of liquor in the grocery store. Not to mention every corner convenience store.

          Like

          • Cojones
            May 31, 2019 at 7:40 PM

            You ought to see it in the large inland Mexican grocery stores. The tequila isle will make you weep.

            Like

    • Silver Creek Dawg
      June 1, 2019 at 1:31 PM

      It’s already permitted statewide. Local jurisdictions can choose to restrict it.

      Similar to the open container law. It’s illegal statewide, but local jurisdictions have the authority to set their own rules (looking at you, Savannah). When I was in school, Athens allowed open containers for UGA home games and certain other outdoor events (Twilight Criterium, Jazz Festival, etc). Is that still the case there?

      Like

  3. section Z alum
    May 31, 2019 at 2:31 PM

    GameDay can now have the Jim Beam Student Section.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Cojones
      May 31, 2019 at 7:53 PM

      With liquid Coke. Don’t forget the white-shirt/dark-wine-in-armpit-goatskin-container-frat-guys drinking section against the back concrete abutment above the student section seats. Still have an un-erasable memory of those guys at game’s end.

      Like

  4. David
    May 31, 2019 at 2:32 PM

    Now it makes even less sense that the athletic department would release their limited alcohol sales plan prior to today. If they aren’t ready to pull the trigger with general sales at football games, why don’t they just pilot general sales at Stegeman, Foley Field, softball games, etc.? Far less of a crowd to deal with, plus tailgating for those sports is pretty much non-existent, so not as many people coming into the games already liquored up.

    Like

    • jrod1229
      May 31, 2019 at 3:06 PM

      No.. it makes perfect sense to try it at the stadium and slowly roll out as your work out the kinks. What would you learn by doing this a the Steg? Different logistics, more games, less fans, etc.

      While it is the butt of the joke the way the decided to test a rollout this way, it make sense to start small and slowly expand as they figure out what demand and execution looks like. Project management 101.

      Like

  5. Salty Dawg
    May 31, 2019 at 2:35 PM

    So is McScroogie going to let us commoners have the privilege of being able to buy, at exorbitant prices, warm beer while McGill peeps get the cold beer?

    Like

  6. Prosticutor
    May 31, 2019 at 3:25 PM

    What a strange and unfamiliar experience it will be to be drinking alcohol during an SEC game.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Cousin Eddie
    May 31, 2019 at 3:50 PM

    Shirtless Spurier ads all over usce and uf selling Coors.
    The Mad Hat ads in Death Valley selling beer.
    Who is going to sell Billy beer in Sanford?

    Like

  8. Bright Idea
    May 31, 2019 at 4:26 PM

    Beer sales might keep people in the games past halftime now. They can relube without rushing back to their tailgate.

    Like

  9. practicaldawg
    May 31, 2019 at 5:43 PM

    Beer: It just earns more

    Like

  10. 79Dawg
    May 31, 2019 at 6:10 PM

    The more I think about this, the more I think most of you are going to be tremendously disappointed.
    1) Sanford Stadium lacks the infrastructure or work force to sell alcohol in any meaningful quantities (even if they were to limit it to 12 oz. cans of Bud).
    2) With all the heat on the Admin to keep minors from drinking, how on earth are they going to police things if upperclassmen and grad students can buy beer and then bring it into the student section?
    3) What’s going to happen when the ACCPD, Jimmy Williamson or the GBI start sending minors up there to try and buy? Inevitably, someone will sell to a minor – how is that gonna look? Are they gonna pull Sanford’s pouring license? If not, why not? How do they avoid treating it any differently than they treat 1000 other places in Athens that sold to a minor (and got caught!)?
    4) Imagine the outcry the first a camera shot pans over the student section and beer cans or cups (okay, maybe some wine glasses too) are stacked up like the Himalayas. If you thought the North Campus trash pics a few years ago was a PR disaster, wait til the outcry from that.
    5) Even the money doesn’t work. Say you sell 500,0000 beers (that’s appx. 1/adult/game), at a $6 mark-up, that’s still only $3,000,000. While that might be a lot to you or I, in a $100MM+ football budget, it is a rounding error. Much easier to just raise the ticket price $6 and avoid all the heat and bad PR. Add in the CapEx and hassle to equip Sanford to sell beer widely, and the ROI gets pretty small, IMO.
    Will be surprised if beer is sold widely in Sanford Stadium in the next decade – just my two cents…
    PS – another important point many seem to be missing: the “lounge” appears to be open only BEFORE the game, not DURING the game – not really sure then how this counts as serving alcohol AT the game. They are basically just moving the high-dollar tailgates from the Georgia Center to inside the stadium, and when the game starts, the “tailgate” wraps and folks go to their seats. I don’t see anything particularly “groundbreaking” about the McGarity’s Lounge…

    Like

    • Corch Irvin Meyers New USC Trojans Corch (2020)
      May 31, 2019 at 6:15 PM

      Old man yells at cloud.

      How will anyone ever find a way to sell alcohol at a football game? Oh, the humanity!

      How will they deal with minors trying to buy beer, because that never happens anywhere else at any other stadium that sells beer?

      Please, 79Dawg, stop clutching your pearls. You’re about to choke yourself with nonsense.

      Or, as Sgt. Hulka is fond of saying, “Lighten up, Francis.”

      Like

    • Cojones
      May 31, 2019 at 8:13 PM

      Sign out front says “If you want to drink beer, pick up medallion of the day at ticket gate. Just show ID”. That would suffice as due diligence at a football beer rally…uh, game in Sanford.

      Don’t send drinkers them negative waves, man.

      You forgot beer fights with opponents after a close game.

      “Oh the humanity” indeed.

      Like

      • Noonan
        June 1, 2019 at 4:45 AM

        After we beat UT in 2000, I witnessed a fistfight between two trashy Tennessee fans up on Hull St. ACC cop rolled up and asked what was going on. One of the guys said: “He’s my brother. He’s drunk.” Good times.

        Like

    • AdaWg
      June 1, 2019 at 11:13 PM

      Oh, my man, you’re waaaay underestimating it.

      It’s going to be 16 oz aluminum bottles or cups, nothing smaller than that…..all AB/INBev/Megabrew brands, nothing good.

      $6 markup hell! They’ll make that just on the bottom line. Aramark sells beer at all it’s stadium contracts. They’ll implement it here in no time just like they do everywhere else.

      Like

  11. Opelikadawg
    May 31, 2019 at 7:35 PM

    I have a hard time getting excited about standing in line for twenty minutes to overpay for some lukewarm, mass produced swill that I wouldn’t touch otherwise. Hey you kids get off my lawn.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Cojones
      May 31, 2019 at 8:24 PM

      Beer hawkers walk the isles just as in major league ball parks. Just show your medallion you secured at the gate with your ID and that beer will never be even lukewarm.

      Be sure to get your section to get into a cup-stack with the adjoining sections so that something 79Dawg conveyed will be true. And sneak a newspaper in underneath your clothing so that you can crunch some up to make the stacks reach eyesore level with the added trash.

      Like

      • KornDawg
        June 1, 2019 at 7:58 AM

        The policy doesn’t allow for sales in the seating area, only in designated stationary locations.

        Like

        • Cojones
          June 1, 2019 at 9:54 AM

          I’m proposing a solution to that problem and trying to smite the negative waves generated through such a draconian sales policy that is now proposed. Hop on the beer wagon before that gamed policy takes root.

          Like

  12. Cojones
    May 31, 2019 at 8:27 PM

    I’ll bring the cookies!!

    Like

  13. TN Dawg
    June 1, 2019 at 10:53 AM

    They really should look into allowing advertising on the jerseys as well.

    I wanna see Kirby in post game interviews thanking folks for the Sunoco Racing Fuel and 12 fresh Goodyear Eagles on the bus to get the team to the game.

    Like

  14. chopdawg
    June 1, 2019 at 1:01 PM

    Can’t see us spending the $$$ it’d take to add more concession stands, train staff, add coolers, etc. It doesn’t help recruiting.

    Like

    • Otto
      June 1, 2019 at 2:46 PM

      The North Side and the end zones have plenty of room. It is the south side that is cramped. It will come, the revenue will be there to sell over priced Macro (Miller, Bud, Coors) beer in a plastic bottle.

      It will be interesting to see if Terrapin or Creature Comforts gets in. I’d wager Terrapin has better odds as they’ve been bought out by a Macro.

      Like

  15. The Georgia Way
    June 1, 2019 at 10:02 PM

    We are pleased to announce that no changes will be made to the carefully crafted and thoughtful beer sales policy rolled out last week.

    However, we are excited to introduce our new $250,000 annual donor level.

    “The McGarity Nobility” will identify you as one of our richest and most entitled Georgia fans. Your donor package will include a custom crown which bestows you intermittent access to our new beer hospitality parlor nestled deep within the southeast corner of Sanford Stadium’s coveted 200-level. To provide you with additional financial planning flexibility, we have extended the McGarity Nobility donation deadline to August 15, 2019.

    Rest assured, we have reserved the right to dismiss our lower-donating nobility if the parlor becomes crowded.

    #COMMITTOTHEG #12DOLLARBUDLIGHTS #DILLYDILLY

    Like

  16. Gaskilldawg
    June 2, 2019 at 7:52 AM

    How much are those skysuites? If less than the $50,000 per year it would take to guarantee me access to the coveted 200 level concourse area in which I could get a beer and not watch the game live I could spend it on a suite and drink whatever alcohol I wished while watching the game.

    Easy choice to make if I wanted to spend that kind of money.

    Like