“It’s been done for years.”

As expected, over time, the trickle of beer sold in college football stadiums has turned into a river.

According to a survey by The Associated Press of Power 5 conference schools and Notre Dame, 55 of 69 of them — 80% — now sell alcohol in the public areas of their stadiums on game days. Of the remaining schools, some sell alcoholic drinks in nonpublic areas of the venue such as suites; others do not sell booze at all.

People want it.  More importantly, people will pay for it.

The University of North Carolina, meanwhile, is in its fifth season of selling alcohol, which has helped the bottom line with about $4 million in sales. After having $320,213 in net sales during the 2019-20 athletic year, the school quadrupled that number last year and will see an increase again after this season.

“Athletic departments typically are not profitable,” Barry said. “So, selling alcohol has simply become a new revenue stream.”

No surprise there.

Baby steps

Welp, this is a start.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Creature Comforts Brewing Co. (@creaturecomfortsbeer)

Now all we need is a Georgia Bulldog-themed craft beer and the ability to buy it inside Sanford Stadium.

You mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this victory down?

Shit, I don’t know which I like more here…

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Southern Brewing Company (@sobrewco)

Southern Brewing COO Steven Brand told the Athens Banner-Herald that the idea evolved from another batch of IPA they were brewing for 2023.

“I was like, if we’re going to do this then let’s make something new,” Brand said. “Let’s make something crazy. As we were putting together our plan for 2023, we had this window for this IPA and we didn’t have a name. So, it kind of worked and fit.”

The company will have the beer in pint form and in 6-packs at its taprooms in Monroe and Athens on Tuesday afternoon. It will begin distributing locally to Athens package stores on Wednesday.

Try to be the shepherd and pick some up on the way to the parade Saturday.

This is how you do it.

My new hero.

Marcus Fulcher scores a touchdown, drinks a fan's beer. FCS football! pic.twitter.com/a678NHvYxV

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) December 10, 2022

My hero

Marc Weiszer ($$) has a story up about alcohol sales at Georgia in the first year of the new policy.  If you care, it was over $230,000 for the four sports that were allowed to serve alcohol at games.  But for me, this was the highlight of the article:

…  A noon tipoff against North Florida that drew 1,868 on Dec. 8 had just $8 in sales. That would mean one alcoholic drink was sold.

Beer at a women’s basketball nooner?  Hardcore.  If you are that person, and you read GTP, please step forward.  You deserve to be properly honored for your effort.  (Also, I’d like to ask why you stopped at only one.)

Never a bad time for a cold one

Sam Pittman, with the invite:

Sam Pittman is the man! 🍺 pic.twitter.com/A4ycknLkcm

— Trey Shirley (@TreyShirley831) November 20, 2022

“The tills are down and we can’t take cash.”

It’s Greg McGarity’s worst nightmare.

Fans attending the Nebraska and Northwestern college football game in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday expected to have plenty of fun in a unique environment, plus all the food and drink they could handle.

When the concession workers notified fans in the first half that the credit card machines used to take payments were down because the Wi-Fi connection was out at Aviva Stadium, those in line literally got all the food and drink they could handle.

… The solution: Christmas morning for those in attendance. Social media posts showed hundreds of fans filling the concourses as they patiently waited.

Or it would be, anyway.  After all, you can’t have Wi-Fi go out during a game if it never worked during a game in the first place.

Have a cold one.

Groo thinks the south side renovations scheduled for Sanford Stadium are a precursor to another change.

I believe this project might eventually have a side effect related to another story from earlier in the year. In the spring we learned that there would be no alcohol sales in Sanford Stadium in 2022. Other Georgia venues from Stegeman Coliseum to the softball and baseball fields began selling beer this past year. From my visits to those venues, it didn’t seem like a big deal. We’ve also seen alcohol sales at other SEC football stadiums, and, again, no big deal. I don’t think anyone making the decisions at Georgia is opposed to alcohol sales at Sanford Stadium.

It’s more likely that the delay in selling alcohol at Sanford Stadium has to do with limited space in key areas of the stadium – particularly on the south side. It’s a constraint we pointed out right away since the SEC loosened its restrictions in 2019. Adding beer lines to the already-cramped concourses would invite disaster and make the game experience even less enjoyable for fans. I don’t particularly care if fans want to waste time in line for a beer. I do care about main walkways or even other concessions being choked off by those lines.

With expanded southside concourses and an opened-up Gate 9 area, there will be room for standalone beer stations on all sides of the stadium. Reed Alley on the north side has plenty of space. The Gate 6 area can work for the east stands. Once this project has been completed I think we’ll see Georgia move forward with alcohol sales at Sanford Stadium.

Hmmm.  Maybe.  Looks like another money versus tradition debate could be coming.

No beer for you!

At least not in the Sanford Stadium cheap seats:

Georgia football fans that don’t sit in premium seats will have to wait at least another season if they want to buy a beer in Sanford Stadium while watching the Bulldogs.

There will be no public alcohol sales in 2022 for Georgia home games, athletic director Josh Brooks said Thursday…

“There’s a lot of elements into it, whether it’s the length of the game and the time, or the logistics of just doing it and preparing it,” Brooks said. “Look, we’re still learning as we grow, so we started with smaller venues, to where we can crawl, walk, run, so now we’re still monitoring the progress we made for the events at Stegeman, Foley and Turner, and we’re just now getting that data in and really analyzing, so it make take some time for us to continue to see how that evolves, but there’s no thought on that now, it’s not our focus.”

Sounds pretty definitive.  And not just for another season, either.

Four tailgates, four tickets…

Look at this as the evolution of all the “what time is the game?, what time can you be here?” Georgia Tech jokes you’ve heard (or told):

Georgia Tech’s spring game will have an unusual feature – a tailgate party taking place in one of the end zones as the game is going on. Plans for the spring game, to be played March 17, were announced by the athletic department Tuesday.

Space in the end zone will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to all fans, with part of the space designated exclusively for students. (The scrimmage will be played with the offense going towards the end zone without the tailgate party.) Food and beverages (including beer and wine) will be available for purchase in the end-zone area, which will have a St. Patrick’s Day theme.

Drinking on the field while the scrimmage is ongoing?  Gee, what could go wrong there…