Michigan AD Dave Brandon says Big House will remain alcohol free
Bucking national trends, Michigan AD Brandon is not an advocate of serving alcohol at Michigan Stadium, "Sometimes people lose track of the fact that we have to organize & manage 110,000 to 115,000 people all in one tight space, and get them in and out of there safely. I don't think serving alcohol is going to make that job any easier."
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10621904/alcohol-sales-p…
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/michigan_stadium_beer.html
March 17th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
at least as far as sales go.
March 17th, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^
Yeah, because everyone attending the games now is stone sober...
There is already 115,000 drunk people being managed every gameday. Banning alcohol in the stadium is purely for apperance and patting ourselves on the back. Drunken assholery is not a legit concern. If it was, you'd have a better policy than this.
Really, you think everyone is drunk? Are you forgetting about the elderly people who choose not to participate in the cheers? I would venture to guess no more than 50% of the stadium is actually *drunk* in the stadium. I have been to at least 50 games with my husband and neither one of us has ever been drunk. Except maybe Under the Lights I. haha
The people who are currently sober at the game are not the ones who would cause problems if the concession stands sold beer.
In other words, selling beer would certainly increase the number of drinkers at the game. I'm not sure how much it would increase the number of drunk assholes, which are the real problem, and already represent a sizable population.
The potential problems lie in the fact that there's always going to be a number of people who enter the stadium moderately buzzed from tailgating. Since they can't get more booze inside the stadium grounds, they're not going to get appreciably drunker during the course of the game, and will probably sober up a bit if they're drinking something non-alcoholic. If beer is available, a percentage of these folks will continue to drink, and will quickly move from moderately buzzed to bona-fide shitfaced. That's when the problems start to surface in earnest. We don't need that regardless of whatever revenue is possible, and I'm glad that Brandon sees it that way as well.
March 18th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^
There's also the chance that more students and people that actually make noise at our games would go. I also know that many people go overboard at the tailgate specifically because they cannot get alcohol in the stadium.
...you've just been going to the wrong operas.
What will it take to finally debunk the myth of the all-powerful superior-enthusiasm student rooting section? The exact timing of the photo below is determined by Michigan's Man Up Front at the tunnel entrance; the MMB is about to enter the field, and the student section is half empty.
March 18th, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
And yet it was still louder than the entire alumni section.
Good. Keep some things sacred, please.
Family atmosphere. I cherished the moments I sat in the stadium with my small kids. Having a couple drunk assholes next to or in front of us would have altered those memories.
Who am I kidding...shots for everyone, let's win the cash war!
I really hope he sticks to this. Yes, some people are drunk in Michigan Stadium from tailgating. But we went to a Lions game where we didn't sit in the family section and it was awful. I can't imagine Michigan Stadium turning into that.
Michigan Stadium was never alcohol-free.
The student section passing all the empties up to the top row at the end of the 3rd Quarter was as much a tradition as the band playing The Victors.
Some days, if it was a still day with no breeze, it was hard to see the student section from across the stadium, or to see the field from the student section through the haze of smoke.
That made for a pretty mellow student section, especially on a warm sunny day.
otherwise known as Ripple. Which in turn frequently led to the technicolor yawn.
Fire Dave Brandon.
I've added the link in addition to the MLive link.
Ya sell beer, ya better double the rest room capacity and bring back the troughs. Its already bad on the top of the Northeast corner. Males would be peeing all over....when ya gotta go ya gotta go, and some decreased inhibitions doesn't help either.
This is definitely for the best.
Thank goodness we get to see the future being created.
Keeping a long-standing policy is "creating the future"?
Totally fine with this
EDSBS has one of their "Michigan Man" posts joking about this subject, but judging by most of the comments here it's actually an entirely accurate analysis.
so dave is going stop people from getting loaded outside of the stadium, and then coming to the game?
March 17th, 2014 at 11:37 PM ^
you could bring in your own beer.