Board of Regents approve revised alcohol policy
After a slight delay, the South Dakota Board of Regents approved changing BOR Policy 6:14, which will allow for general admission alcohol sales (GA sales) at BOR-affiliated university sporting events. Previously, universities like SDSU were only permitted to sell alcohol in premium or loge seating. With this policy change, anyone who is 21 years and older will have a chance to buy a drink.
“It doesn’t mandate campuses to sell alcohol at every event, it just gives them the additional flexibility of everything they can currently do, in addition to expanding alcohol sales to into general admission areas,” said Nathan Lukkes, general counsel for the BOR.
The policy change came after a push from student federations at the state universities, particularly the student federations at SDSU and the University of South Dakota, last fall. The BOR explained at the June 23 meeting that they were very impressed by the students who pushed for change, as they were “excellent and very well-articulated.”
It is now up to each individual university to decide if they will allow for alcohol sales at sporting events. For SDSU, that decision will come from President Barry Dunn. Will it happen? Pres. Dunn has not publicly taken a position, but judging by past comments, I would venture a guess that he is likely to be in favor of it.
There are 73 days until the first home game, vs. UC-Davis. Is that enough time to get everything ready for GA sales? I would guess a few more weeks would be a little more ideal as there are few details from the revised policy that still need to be worked out.
BOR Policy 6:14 states “The point of sale for alcoholic beverages must be separate and apart from required food service general concessions.” — SDSU will need to make alcohol vendor stands seperate from other concession stands.
+ “There must be at least one alcohol free zone, of comparable viewing to alcohol zones, designated and appropriately marked for the event where no alcoholic beverage may be sold, consumed, or possessed.” — It will be interesting to see where exactly in the stadium this will be. There could be more than one of these zones in the stadium as well. I would not be suprised if the student section was designated an alcohol free zone.
“The reason for this is we certainly have spectators that want to have the opportunity to have an alcoholic beverage and do it responsibly while watching a theater event or sporting event, but there may also be spectators who prefer not to be around alcohol,” Lukkes said. “So we want to make sure we accommodate both interests and give our fans the options that they need.”
+ “The sale of alcoholic beverages may start no sooner than one hour before the scheduled start of the event and must end at least thirty minutes prior to the scheduled end of the event (e.g., end of the third quarter of a football game).” — Very standard.
+ “A limit of two alcoholic beverages may be purchased at one time by an individual bearing a legal ID.” - I saw that some people inferred this meant a limit of two beers per game—this policy is only limiting the amount per purchase.
SDSU will also need to create their own policy this summer, but I would guess the athletic department has that pretty much ironed out in anticpation of this policy change.
Sodexo is SDSU’s new food service provider, starting this fall. I doubt the concessions will be any different from last fall but I will be interested to see what their beer selection/prices are. Elsewhere in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, Illinois St. sells 16 oz. domestic beer for $6 and craft beer for $7. But that was from 2019. Will inflation seep into beer prices? I’m not sure but I won’t be surprised if we go from no beer last fall to people complaining about beer prices midway through the season. On the topic of beer selection, I would love to see SDSU get some local breweries, like Eponymous, Fernson and Wooden Legs, inside the stadium. Win-win for everyone involved. Getting local wineries in on the action would also be great to see.
As for attendance, I think this change in policy (assuming SDSU follows through) won’t really effect attendance numbers too much for the early season home football games. Right away, you’ll see an increase just from the newness and excitement of it but I don’t really think it’s going to lead to sell-outs all season, although I hope I’m wrong about that. Where I think it might really help is late season games and playoff games. I don’t think it’s going to mean the Illinois St. game on Nov. 12 will be a sell-out, but more people will be swayed into going because they can get a beer. Much easier to freeze your butt off outside with a Coors Light than without.
I’ll also be curious to see how this affects tailgating. The biggest change, I think, is that you’ll have more people actually going to the games rather than just packing up and leaving when the game starts. In the policy, there is also a pre-game “Permitted Event” portion which would allow for SDSU to host tailgate events and sell alcohol.
Football games have been the primary focus of this policy change and rightfully so, but I’m probably more excited about the possibilities the other sports have. First Bank and Trust (Frost) Arena doesn’t really need the extra help to create a great environment but the additional option to buy a drink or two at a game will only help attendance. Further, I think there’s a lot of exciting possibilities for sports like soccer, baseball, softball and home track meets. All will benefit from this revised policy.
Assuming USD will begin selling beer at the Dakota Dum—Dome, the only school in the MVFC that doesn’t allow for any beer to be sold at home games is NDSU. The folks over at Bisonville are reacting accordingly. That may be changing soon, however.
