(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/14/23) Michigan's 15 public universities can sell the general public beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks at football games and other sporting events, under legislation the Senate passed, 36-2, Wednesday.
Sen. Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo)'s SB 247 lets universities buy up to five tavern licenses or up to five Class C licenses to serve all ticketholders 21 and over. Presently, boozy transactions are limited to luxury suite owners and guests.
Alcoholic beverage sales could start up to one hour before a game starts and must be shut down by the time the game is over.
Sens. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) and Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) were the only two to vote no on the bill.
Singh represents East Lansing, where Michigan State University (MSU) is located, and is a graduate of the university.
"I don't have a big issue against alcohol at stadiums, but I did have some concerns brought by neighborhood leaders in the city of East Lansing who have kind of grappled at times with large events that deal with alcohol," Singh said to the media. "So, I voted to make sure that voice was heard in this process, but I think overall, I'm hopeful that the implementation of this will go well."
When asked if he personally would purchase an alcoholic drink at MSU's Spartan Stadium if SB 247 is signed into law, Singh said, "Oh, absolutely."
MSU, the University of Michigan and the University of Nebraska are the only three Big Ten schools that don't sell alcohol to their general admission fans, even though the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) started permitting it during the 2018-2019 season, said MSU Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch.
Before SB 247 was unanimously approved by the Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Lynch explained how his colleagues supervising collegiate safety throughout the United States did not experience an increase in alcohol-related issues because of the new gameday sales, nor did they need to hire new campus police officers to address the change.
"Potential challenges that we've heard from our peers and colleagues tend to deal more with the sale itself – the concession. Based on the stadiums and the design, sometimes the lines are a little longer, things of that nature…" Lynch said to the bill's respective committee.
Amid earlier conversations around selling alcoholic refreshments during university sporting events, a SportsMoney contribution to Forbes found that in 2015, West Virginia University made $626,675 in revenue from selling alcoholic drinks at football games. The University of Minnesota made $577,216 from selling at football, men's basketball and men's hockey games.
In December 2019, Louisiana State University (LSU) flaunted how the sale of more than 280,000 alcoholic beverages in its football stadium's public areas generated more than $2.259 million in net revenue for the year. During the period, 3,700 total units of pinot grigio wine were sold, and 128,627 units of Michelob ULTRA light beer.
While LSU's Tiger Stadium has 102,321 seats, the University of Michigan's football stadium in Ann Arbor has 107,601 seats.
"I think a lot of people are interested in the opportunities that come from the economics of beer sales in the venues, but we also did reach out to stakeholders and worked really hard to make sure that bars and restaurants and the communities aren't going to be negatively impacted by this," McCann said to the media on Tuesday. "We set time limits on the service times as part of the conversations we had."
