About a decade ago, Daryl Gross called a meeting with Nancy Cantor, then-Syracuse University chancellor. He wanted to bring a Manhattan-style bar into the Carrier Dome.

The Carrier Dome has sold beer at home football and basketball games since its opening in 1980. But this was almost unheard of: Before 2008, only six schools sold beer during games, per Vice Sports.

Alcohol had long been a driver in Syracuse’s concession sales, but there wasn’t a place fans could go to enjoy a drink or shareable platter away from their seats. An in-venue bar, Gross thought, would be perfect, and it would increase game-day sales.

The conversation ended in less than an hour, Gross, the former Syracuse director of athletics, recalled. Cantor told Gross to “go for it.”

Soon, SU launched the project to build Club 4.4, an exclusive members-only club located behind sections 108 and 109. Construction finished in 2010.

“I was telling everybody that this will make so much money,” Gross recalled. “It was low-hanging fruit. We wanted to make a more wholesome experience.”

The addition was part of a leading charge to upgrade food, beer and overall amenities in what’s a tradition-bound world of stadium concessions. As Club 4.4’s popularity grew, Gross said beer revenue ticked upward. It was a “big revenue piece” during Gross’ tenure, which ended in 2015.

Gross also brought the addition of floor seats to the Carrier Dome, which has generated about $2 million in annual revenue. He said alcohol sales were less than half of floor seat revenues when he left Syracuse, but SU has sold beer in “mass quantities, enough to create a significant line item” on its financial statements.

The Carrier Dome offers hard cider and craft beer, including local brews such as the Syracuse Pale Ale. Roaming carts offer canned beers and premixed canned drinks. Concession stands also offer chardonnay, merlot, white zinfandel, Bully Hill and White Cat wine.

Daily Orange File Photo

With average attendance for Division I football falling, programs are seeking new ways to get fans to show up. Nels Popp, an assistant professor of sport administration at North Carolina, said alcohol is an attempt to do this.

Texas A&M and Auburn have beer gardens in their baseball stadiums. LSU now has a club designated for alcohol sales. Texas Longhorns fans bought $701,234 worth of beer and wine in one game alone in 2016. And that year, UT generated about $3 million in revenue from alcohol sales, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Purdue, Marshall and Fresno State each have introduced or expanded beer sales in their arenas. Texas introduced a partnership with Corona last year, adding a tailgate area where fans can take photos with Corona’s Adirondack chair. Last year, a Wall Street Journal analysis of beer sales in college football found that Texas was the highest booze consumption per capita in the country. Fans want the lightest and cheapest beer they can find, the report found, and they want to support local breweries and wineries.

Several fans tailgating before recent Syracuse football games said they enjoy drinking before football games. But a handful of fans said more local options would be nice, including gluten-free beers.

“They don’t have that many beers on tap,” said Gabriel Mejia, a senior bioengineering major at SU. “They come in little cups, there’s a one beer per student limit and no imported options. It’s not ideal.”

Erik Marberger, a senior finance and accounting double major, likes the Carrier Dome selection. He enjoys Syracuse Pale Ale. He said he has come to appreciate the $7 beers at the Dome, because he’s a Philadelphia Phillies fan. Beers at MLB stadiums usually run between $5 and $15 each.

“You don’t need alcohol to have a good time,” Marberger said. “It’s a nice touch, though.”

In a statement, Syracuse Athletics said it solicits fan feedback to increase the gameday experience, pointing to recent changes, including more pregame activities on the SU Quad and security enhancements.

While alcohol has always been synonymous with the Carrier Dome, universities generally don’t encourage alcohol consumption, Popp said. He said beer and rowdy behavior could be linked. Further, beer sales margins are not always significant enough at mid- to smaller-market schools. For those reasons, many schools shy away from selling alcohol.

The Southeastern Conference, college football’s most powerful league, outlaws the sale of alcohol in general seating areas of its venues. It’s the only policy of its kind in the Power 5, including the Atlantic Coast Conference. Mississippi state law prohibits the sale of alcohol on public university campuses.

Yet millennials of legal age account for more than one-third of U.S. beer consumption, according to Nielsen. That, coupled with the challenge of meeting fans’ evolving desires, drives college athletic programs to mimic professional sports organizations by selling booze. In April, the NCAA lifted a long-standing ban on alcohol sales at its championship events.

“If you want to fill the venue, you have to assume many fans will just hang out in a club, drink, snack and not watch the game,” Popp said. “Sports teams have to be OK with that.”

Published on October 4, 2018 at 12:12 am

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