OT: Purdue Announces Plans for Alcohol Sales, Patio Area in Ross-Ade Stadium
I just stumbled into this announcement:
http://www.purduesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/070814aab.html
...which outlines Purdue's plans to sell beer and wine inside Ross-Ade Stadium starting this fall. The sales will be limited to the new patio area which will be set up in the south end zone, replacing the rickety old bleachers which were very recently torn down.
Those are the same south bleachers which for years were primarily occupied by visiting fans, meaning that Purdue will likely now designate part of north end zone as the visitors seating area. Purdue is still working on plans for a major renovation at some point in the coming years, and those plans likely will include building a permanant addition to the stadium where the south bleachers used to be.
The new patio area will be limited to a maximum of 1500 fans at a time and will be also limited to season ticket holders and students who purchase a special pass. Beer and wine and "typical tailgate foods" will be sold in that area, making Ross-Ade only the 2nd B1G Football Stadium to allow alcohol sales.
Next month with a packed house.
Believe it or not, this has already undergone extensive testing at Purdue. Just ask the search committee who introduced Danny Hope.
If this goes well, they intend to expand the patio all the way to the north end zone and hold concerts instead of football games with a portion of all sales going to the local farming community. In a brillant reprise of the 80's blockbuster fundraisers, they're calling it "Farm Ade".
The next Big House renovations would probably be a restaurant/bar in one endzone and an upper deck in the other increasing seating to 125K.
Plans have already been submitted and approved for expanding the south end zone. Estimates are in the 12K seat range. It will connect the east side club seats to the west side chairbacks. Of course the demand, funding, and approval to start from the Regents hasn't happened yet as we all know. However, the idea of making the north side a restaurant/bar area is pretty cool. I know a lot of people complain about changes to the Big House, but you can't tell me they didn't do a godd job with the addition of the upper sections. The sound is getting louder and it looks great!
Well, at least Bolier fans will now have something to cry into during the game.....
{rimshot}
Alcohol SalesAbhorrent. Shouldn't be at College football games
Patio Area in Ross-Ade StadiumThe rendering looks quite nice, actually. Good for them.
Just looked at the story on Hammer and Rails. One of the comments points out that there is a promotion through July 11 that puts the price for season tickets in the North endzone at $79.
sports events are about socializing can go to hell
It was pretty awesome to be able to get a cold Molson in the Big House at the Winter Classic. But a major problem was that the bathrooms couldn't accomodate that many beer drinkers, so people were just peeing everywhere. I think that would have to be addressed before they sell beer at Michigan. For now, I'll continue sneaking in cans of cheap beer.
why wouldn't it work at UM? Why shouldn't Brandon do it? Don't kid yourself about the purity of intercollegiate athletics, amateurism etc. Alcohol is sold routinely at many college football venues. The University of Louisville has ascended pretty high in fairly short order in terms of competitiveness and their football and basketball games are a huge cocktail party, not just beer but booze too.