It's a tradition for many college kids, getting wasted before, during and after campus football games. And at SMU, students may now do so without stuffing their Natty Lights and other fashionably lowbrow domestics into their pockets.
After a long battle of negotiations between administration and Aramark, the concession company for SMU's Ford Stadium, including a trial period selling beer at basketball games, sales were finally approved and are slated to begin next football season.
Students won't be able to get especially drunk under the new rules, at least not without supplemental provisions. Wristbands will be given to 21-and-over students allotting no more than three drinks over the course of the game. Non-students can secure one drink at a time per concession stand trip, which seems reasonable enough.
Rick Hart, Athletic Director at SMU, told USA Today that alcohol sales are exactly what the audience has ordered. "There's a revenue component to it, for sure, but it was part of the experience fans wanted," he said. During the basketball trial period, there were apparently no reports of post-win street drunkenness. "We had zero alcohol-related arrests. We didn't see a spike in any type of behavioral issues."
Student football ticket sales are dismal at SMU, where undergrads generally Boulevard and then, perhaps wisely, decamp to watch the SEC. This won't likely help, since SMU's not-totally professionalized version of college football largely appeals to underage freshmen, fresh from their orientation pep rallies. Plus, the industrious among these freshman are already sneaking in vodka-filled water bottles and pocket shots, otherwise known as liquor port-a-pouches. An $8 Shiner, while tempting perhaps to HPHS alum, will likely not draw any takers from more frugal students.
No, this is for parents, alumni and the school's Park Cities neighbors, which explains the other beverage being added to the concession stands: wine. Who doesn't love a crystalline glass of merlot with their football-watching experience?
