ATHENS — How about a cold brew with your Georgia football?
Well, you can have them together at Sanford Stadium next season. Georgia’s Josh Brooks somewhat casually offered the development of beer sales at football games at the very end of his athletic director’s report to the Athletic Association’s board of director’s meeting Wednesday at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. “Sanford Stadium fan amenities” was the last item in a long list of information Brooks shared during a half-hour long presentation.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
“As you know, we have been moving very intentionally about how we introduce beer sales to athletic events,” Brooks said. “We tried it in basketball, baseball, softball and others. The question has always been, when are we going to get it at Sanford. Well, we wanted to get through the construction phase ... and really study best practices as far as what to do and what not to do. Through that, we’re ready to announce that now we are planning to sell beer in Sanford Stadium this fall.”
Brooks then ran through protocols in place at the other venues. They will shut down sales at the end of the third quarter. There will be a maximum of two purchases per individual, and all servers will be properly trained.
Georgia is the last of the 14 SEC schools to introduce beer sales at their football games, following Auburn, which approved it earlier this year. New SEC members Oklahoma and Texas also sell beer.
“It’s not something you want to rush into,” Brooks said. “We were able to learn a lot of notes from our peers as far as things they went through and best practices, so we feel ready and prepared to take that on this fall.”
Questioned by reporters after the meeting, Brooks was not ready to provide many details, such as price and size. He did say that alcohol sales would be limited to beer and seltzers only.
“It’s going to be reasonable,” Brooks said about price. “But, at the same time, we always talk about concession sales being family friendly and trying to take care of a family of four or five coming to a game. This is not something where I think making it cheap is something that’s important. This is a luxury item, not a necessity item, so it’s not going to be something we value-price. But it will be fair and in line with most of our peers.”
Georgia currently sells 16-ounce domestic beers for $8 and imported for $9 at Stegeman Coliseum. UGA introduced limited sports-venue alcohol sales three years ago. They have supplied alcohol in special-access donor areas for years.
The SEC approved alcohol sales for its membership in 2019.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
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