“Huh…that’s interesting,” Zecker said.
He was pondering a possibility that UMass has not yet explored in order to draw more people to games: selling alcohol.
The lack of alcohol could be a major reason the typical UMass game at McGuirk or Mullins may be full of empty seats. The sale of alcohol on university grounds during sporting events is not illegal; according to USA Today, 32 college football stadiums and multipurpose arenas have recently become wet as of 2014.
There’s a potentially major incentive to start selling alcohol in terms of attendance. A seemingly unending pack of underclassmen rally together to have a few—or maybe sometimes more than a few—drinks at the tailgates prior to football games.
Could UMass be able to attract their own students from the parking
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Kristi Dosh of Forbes in a 2016 article pointed out that the University of Texas made almost $2 million dollars at home football games from alcohol sales, but those sales were not restricted to premium access areas at the stadium, similar to what other schools do. On the flip side, the University of Minnesota actually lost money in 2012, their first year of selling alcohol at football games, due to the extra security and police members hired for games as well as the cut of the profit that food and drink vendor Aramack Corporation took.
The other factor that probably would make the school hesitant to start serving alcohol, is the stigma of drinking surrounding the campus culture. The “Zooniversity of Slamherst” reputation has followed UMass for decades, and over the last few years measures have been made by the university to wipe that reputation away. Free concerts have been offered to students in order to draw them away from “Blarney Blowout” parties in March, and extra police officers have been brought in for events like tailgates and “day drink” parties at off-campus housing