The Real Debate About Alcohol At College Events

On the University of Maryland campus, they are having a debate that has become an annual rite of passage for the college football offseason. It never fails that once we are 75 to 100 days out from kickoff, a university brings up the possibility of selling alcohol at on-campus sporting events. And each instance of this tired debate is rife with the same old platitudes and empty statements.

“Alcohol sales would tarnish the reputation of the university.”

“It would improve the fan experience.”

“We just need to be sure there is proper oversight and policies in place.”

That’s not to say Maryland’s approach to the subject isn’t in some way unique. The proposal was presented by the Student Government, and organization that represents the interest of people who are mostly below the drinking age. Their stated purpose is to curb binge drinking before games by making alcohol more widely available during the events.



Did you catch how that last sentence was phrased? You’d be forgiven if you missed it.

More widely available. As in, alcohol is already served at Maryland’s Byrd Stadium, the same way it is already served at the majority of the schools that claim to bar drinking during sporting events.

You see, the debate was never about whether alcohol should be served at all, but whether it should be served to certain people. It’s no secret that across the country, as long as you have a club level or suite ticket, you can already enjoy cocktails and beer during a football or basketball game. So, what is so different about serving alcohol elsewhere in the stadium?

If there is a study that proves a correlation between how much money someone has and their ability to hold their liquor, I haven’t seen it. But there is clearly a link between how much a person gives to a program and what they are allowed to do.

Maybe it is a mindset that these sections of the stadium tend to be more tame. There are better staff-to-patron ratios, making incidents easier to handle. I’m sure there is some sort of pseudo logic that has been used to justify the decision.

When we get back to the reality of the situation, it’s clear the decision makers don’t believe the unwashed masses of casual fans can control themselves. And maybe that opinion is built upon a few decades of experience in event staffing and crowd control, but let’s not pretend that selling alcohol to a certain class of people will “tarnish the reputation of the university.”

If you are publicly scared of what your “regular” fans might do after a few drinks, you have already established the reputation of your university.

So, Maryland and any other university considering the same, make a decision one way or the other. You either sell alcohol, or you don’t. Because publicly decrying the practice while running a members only speakeasy is an insult to your fans in the cheap seats.