Rebel fans were permitted to pair their pretzels and hot dogs with a cold beer for the first time at the Texas A&M game on Saturday.
Fans bought a little over 15,000 beers, leading to about $128,000 of gross revenue for the Ole Miss Athletics Department.
This summer, the Southeastern Conference decided to allow member universities to choose whether or not to sell alcoholic beverages during athletic events.
After waiting to observe the implementation processes of other schools and assessing staffing needs, the Ole Miss Athletics Department decided to sell beer at the last three football games of the 2019 season, starting on Oct. 19.
Interim Athletics Director Keith Carter said that the athletics department hopes to keep the game day experience similar for the fans, whether they buy alcohol or not.
“From an incident standpoint, I think it was, you know, very similar to some other games,” Carter said. “I think we had a couple of alcohol-related ejections and maybe a few arrests but nothing over the top, and certainly we don’t think the addition of beer dramatically increased anything from that standpoint.”
Carter explained that he hopes that the policy of selling beer in the stadium will help to mitigate unhealthy drinking habits for students as well as alcohol-related incidents and arrests.
“Our goal is to do this in a safe and responsible way,” said Carter. “We want to make sure it is a family-friendly environment and that people continue to have a great time. We have a great game day atmosphere.”
There is some statistical backing to the benefits of colleges taking the initiative with alcohol sales on campus. For example, the West Virginia University Police found that there was a 35% decrease in the number of game day alcohol-related incidents once the stadium began offering beer within the stadiums.
“I think a lot of the data and research from other places show that by having beer available at the venue, (it) reduces binge drinking prior to the game,” said Carter. “It actually maybe keeps people in the stands a little longer rather (than) going back to the Grove to tailgate.”
Ole Miss has received overwhelming support from students in introducing alcohol sales into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium during football games.
“I approve. Most people drink in the Grove for hours before, so I don’t think that selling alcohol in the game makes that much of a difference,” said Marielle Olivier, a junior general business major. “If anything, it makes fans stay at the game longer, which looks good on our school.”
Olivier has been to about 12 games since she has come to college. She said of the Texas A&M game, “I think fans were slightly more rowdy. But playing A&M, another SEC school, may have contributed to that as well.”
Although Olivier is not yet 21, she said she will likely buy spiked seltzers at games when she is. Both she and Scott Null, a graduate pharmacy student, noticed more college-aged fans than older adults purchasing alcohol.
“People are going to drink at the game regardless of the rule,” Null said. “So it might as well make the university money. They were always drunk — it’s just now they don’t have to sneak the alcohol in. They can buy it legally.”
