Texas’ $3.1 Million In Alcohol Sales Proves Every University Should Sell Beer In Football Stadiums

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Here’s some breaking news for you: College football fans like to drink.

Here’s some more news for you: When you pack tens of thousands of those college football fans into a stadium, selling them alcohol can be a pretty lucrative venture. The University of Texas athletic department, which was in its second season of selling alcohol at Royal-Memorial Stadium in 2016, can attest to that, as they just reported $3.1 million in alcohol sales for the year, a 70% increase from the previous year.

Qualitatively speaking, this boost in sales can be largely attributed to the nice weather in Austin for all six home games and the schedule of opponents, which included Notre Dame at the start the year. It should come as no surprise that the season opener against the Fighting Irish brought in by far the most alcohol sales of any Texas home game. Nothing like hosting a bunch of Midwestern Irish Catholics with a predilection for heavy drinking in addition to your own rowdy fanbase to help increase alcohol sales.

Plus, you know, a shitty season can drive fans to drink.

More sales figures and stats, via HookEm.com:

According to data obtained through an open records request, Texas raked in $2.8 million in beer sales, $128,321 in wine sales and another $141,632 in liquor sales during six home games in what ultimately became a 5-7 season.

Miller Lite is still the beer of choice for Texas fans sitting in the stands, but it’s a close race with Coors Light. Fans bought 98,535 Miller Lites this season compared to 62,275 sold in 2015. That alone brought in $788,280 in revenue.

Fans bought 95,096 Coors Lights during the season, generating $761,168 in revenue. Coming in a distant third was Bud Light. Texas sold only 34,257 of those, according to UT records.

Want to know what doesn’t sell? Budweiser. The once-proud “King of Beers” is almost a non-starter with the UT crowd. Texas sold 89 cans of Bud all season. Fans cracked open 1,411 Shiner Bocks and 741 Michelob Ultras, by comparison. And fans guzzled 952 Lone Stars.

The lack of love for the King of Beers is borderline blasphemous. You’re telling me that there were almost ten times as many Michelob Ultras, which are the Skinnygirl Cocktails of beer, sold than Bud Diesels? For shame. You people don’t deserve Tom Herman. Also, who the hell drinks wine at a football game in the Texas heat? I guess nothing exudes class like sipping on some Pinot Grigio from a plastic cup when it’s 90 degrees out while screaming profanities at Charlie Strong from the upper deck.

Interestingly, HookEm.com also notes that a preliminary analysis shows that there was a reduction in alcohol-related incidents at the stadium compared to 2015. So while sales and consumption of alcohol inside the stadium increased exponentially, people were causing fewer problems. This may not be that big a deal for Texas (although it’s commendable that fans there can hold their liquor without acting like shitheads), but for fans of other schools who would like to see their own school start selling beer, this is a great example to cite to support your own cause.

Hopefully more schools around the country are seeing cases like Texas’ and starting to look more seriously into selling alcohol at home games for their fans. It’s an easy revenue stream. Fans are able to hold their liquor for the most part and underage college kids won’t be willing to risk an MIP or losing their fake for the privilege of shelling out seven bucks for a 16 oz. light beer. It’s an easy solution that I’m sure all these other schools will overcomplicate and fuck up, but hopefully the rest of us will soon be granted our right to slam beers and watch football, just like the Founding Fathers intended. Until then, keep UT-Austin lit.

[via HookEm.com]

Image via Shutterstock

      1. James Grossweiner

        I believe the real story here is that the Miller Lite was really cheap or Texas fans are even dumber than we all thought

        8 years ago at 7:09 pm
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