Cheers and Booze at College Stadiums

Beer Here! Beer Here?

More universities are embracing the sale of alcohol at football games, but not everyone is comfortable with the trend.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Fans of professional sports teams would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary at Milan Puskar Stadium’s concession stands on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon. Domestic and imported beer, wine and a hard cider advertised as gluten-free were all for sale during West Virginia’s football game against Maryland.

But these options were actually unusual. West Virginia is in the small minority of college teams that sell alcohol at football games to general-admission ticketholders, which it has done since 2011. And it is one of very few in the five most prominent conferences to do so, although many more make alcohol available in suites and to holders of other kinds of premium tickets.

“I’m a traditionalist,” said Alan Cage, 65, a West Virginia fan who sold Coca-Cola at the old Mountaineer Field when he was a boy. “It’s college football, and I grew up with no beer in the stands.”

But he was quick to add, “From an economic standpoint, I can understand.”

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