(Photo Credit: IU Athletics)

IU football games just got a little more fun. On Tuesday, the administration announced a “pilot program” to serve beer and wine at Hoosier football games.

Athletic Director Fred Glass noted that the program is meant to increase the game day experience and decrease the amount of alcohol related incidents in and around the stadium. Glass emphasized that the primary motivation for this program is not revenue. In fact, the University will be donating 10% of net alcohol-related sales revenues to campus alcohol safety programs.

The administration has been considering this idea for a while and even hired a consulting firm (Wasserman) to study the program’s implementation at other universities. The consulting firm’s findings revealed that serving beer and wine increased overall attendance. Furthermore, the 50 university study found a reduced number of alcohol-related incidents after introducing beer and wine sales. The IU release specifically mentioned a 65% decline in alcohol-related incidents at Ohio State after the first year of the program and a 35% decline at West Virginia.

Certain Indiana basketball games have provided alcohol for boosters and “special guests,” but not the general public at large. While this new release does not specifically mention the possibility of expanding the program to cover basketball games, the administration noted they were creating a task force to choose a vendor and oversee the logistics of the policy, including whether the sales could eventually spread to other IU venues.

The Trend

More and more universities are beginning to sell alcohol at sporting events. According to the Des Moines Register, at the beginning of the 2018 season, there were 52 FBS schools selling alcohol at their stadiums. This number has continued to rise since the report came out. Several Big Ten schools are amongst those selling alcohol, including Ohio State, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, and Purdue.

While the IU administration says profit is not the program’s primary motivation, there is no question that there is money to be made.

During Purdue’s first full season selling alcohol at football games, the Boilermakers reported that alcohol sales exceeded $550,000. Of that amount, about $388,000 came from beer and wine alone.

For Ohio State, the numbers were even higher. The Buckeyes pulled in a staggering $1.35 million in beer sales alone during the 2017 season.

Sure, these concourse revenue sales are impressive, but for entrepreneurial universities this is only a part of the revenue possibilities. Like everything else in college sports, branding can open even more doors.

The University of Texas partnered with Corona for their “Horns Up, Limes In” campaign and created a Corona-branded “beach house” tailgate zone. The University of Houston secured a deal with Bud Light, giving their parent company Anheuser-Busch the right to use certain elements of Houston’s branding for products and marketing.

Moreover, many universities have decided to create their own brands, instead of partnering with large alcohol conglomerates. Purdue is among the schools that created their own signature beers. Purdue’s “Boiler Gold” and “Boiler Black” signature brews were a big hit amongst not only the Boilermaker faithful but also Indiana craft beer enthusiasts. Purdue partnered with Lafayette-based People’s Brewing Co. for the creations and a portion of the proceeds of the craft beers go directly to the College of Agriculture’s food science department.

Tulane, LSU, Colorado State, and Louisiana-Lafayette (the University that started the trend in 2015) also have their own signature, self-branded beers.

Thus, while IU has only taken the first step of instituting a pilot program, the possibilities are endless. Not only could the program better the game day experience, it could also result in solid revenue gains and intelligent branding opportunities. Stay tuned because the Cream and Crimson Lager might be coming your way soon.

More important than money…

Across the country, college football attendance has been declining. The Big Ten saw their lowest average attendance since 1993. Everyone knows that Indiana football has had historical problems bringing fans in to the stadium. With television technology getting better year over year and accessibility to watch football games on more platforms than ever, the actual live-game experience has a ton of competition. Is alcohol the answer to get fans back in the stands?