"Colleges weigh risks, rewards of stadium beer sales"

From the SportsBusiness Journal


Review by Michael Fedorowski in KIN 332 (Section 2)

The article “Colleges Weigh Risks, Rewards of Stadium Beer Sales” (sportsbusinessdaily.com, Don Muret, September 19, 2011) weighs the benefits and negatives of allowing the sale of alcohol inside collegiate stadiums during athletic events. Beer sales during football games have been an ever-increasing trend for universities as athletic departments continue to look for new streams of revenue. The article itself concentrates on Western Virginia University for they are the newest school to follow suit. Currently it is up to the school to decide whether they will sell beer during their games, as the NCAA has no rules against it. WVU made $75,000 in beer sales during their first game and expect to gross between $500,000 and $1.2million annually this year. Selling beer not only has its increase in revenue advantage but also opens new doors to sponsorships and endorsement deals.

Companies such as Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors can pour beer during games, but they are not permitted to advertise within the bowl arena or outside the stadium. Both the schools and beer companies still benefit greatly from sponsorships with some deals ranging in the six figures annually. Brewers also receive commercial time on radio broadcasts and program ads such as pamphlets. WVU believes that selling alcohol during games will curb binge drinking at tailgates while also bringing in extra revenue for their athletic department. It is a win-win situation. The fans, school, and brewing companies are all happy campers.

---

Review by Katie Minter in KIN 332 (Section 2)

This article was very interesting and I think a topic that has been widely discussed at different colleges and universities around the United States. In this article, Don Muret introduces us to the idea that West Virginia University has decided to start selling beer at public sporting events, especially at their football games. He explains that this idea is not widely accepted in the world of college sports except for a few colleges like Colorado State, which is right next door to Coor’s Brewery, University of Nevada, and University of Louisiana-Lafayette. With the decision of West Virginia University to start selling beer at their stadium, they are slowly intergrading the new policy and acceptance of selling beer into their football traditions. WVU estimated that they would gain $500,000 to 1.2 million dollars in new revenue from selling beer alone at their stadium this season. Along with raising revenue, they will also be increasing the opportunity to gain sponsorships. This process is taking sometime to figure out because WVU is not advertising their sponsorships inside of the stadium, except for small signs on the concourses that direct fans to the appropriate concession stand to purchase the type of beer that they want. To fill the void of advertising inside of the stadium, they are allowing the breweries to advertise on commercial broadcast and with ads in the game programs. Along with raising revenue and increasing the opportunity of sponsorships, WVU is also using this to curb the habit of binge drinking before and during games. WVU hopes this will control the level of consumption of alcohol before games, since fans will now be allowed to drink during the game and in this situation both parties win with fans being able to drink during the games, and the university can generate revenue.

I thought this article was very interesting because I think it is the beginning of what is to come in the world off college sports. I think there are still a lot of people against advertising and consumption of alcohol at on-campus events, but with the economy not being as stable as it has been and the drop in ticket sales, some schools are going to have to start offering new perks to get ticket sales up. I think it is a genius idea to be able to regulate student drinking, to an extent, and also to generate revenue for the school. It may be against a long running tradition to not drink at college games, but college student will always drink before games, and usually a lot before games to last the whole game, so why not curb that tradition and start a new tradition of selling beer during games and helping the school generate profit. I think it is still a work in progress, but I will not be surprise if in a couple years, more and more universities are starting to sell beer at on-campus events.

"Selling Alcohol to Fight Alcohol Abuse"

From Athletic Business

Review by Sam Dowell in KIN 435

The West Virginia University’s season ticket holders have voiced their concern over the drunken culture of the Mountaineer football games. West Virginia will start losing season ticket holders fast if they don’t change something to keep the games fun for families as well as the students. The heavy binge drinking that occurs in the parking lots before the game and at halftime correlate to an environment where the language and behavior has gotten to the point where alumni and fans don’t want to bring their kids and grandkids to the games.

WVU athletic director Oliver Luck is faced with figuring out a way to solve this problem so that he can keep the rich tradition and culture of football that the University has been known for. Luck’s solution is to fight fire with fire and place beer vendors inside the stadium. It sounds ironic, but Luck’s theory is that if beer is available to people during the game, they won’t pre-game as hard before hand. The same thinking applies to halftime, where instead of everyone going to the parking lot and chugging beers, they’ll get them at the stadium because when they are finished they can go get another one. This allows WVU to control the drinking a little more and therefore should prevent some cases of inebriated behavior as well as make the University some extra money. Other schools such as North Dakota sell beer and wine at their games and haven’t had any real problems.

I feel that Oliver Luck needs to do something so that he doesn’t lose season ticketholders and this solution is worth a shot. If successful, it will keep season ticket sales up for the university as well as earn extra revenue for the athletic department with the beer sales. Luck estimates that the beer sales will earn between $500,000 and $1,200,000 that will go to the athletic department. That’s a lot of money and even though Rose insists it is not about the money, it is a nice incentive to go with this option. Rose also mentioned that he was considering banning the long standing policy of allowing everyone re-entry to the stadium during the game and at half-time. Personally, I feel that for this solution to really make a change in the drunken behavior at the games, Rose must ban this policy. It won’t be a popular decision but it will severely decrease the binge drinking, and give WVU a lot more control since there will be beer available in the stadium. If he kept re-entry in place, tons of students would still go binge drink at halftime because it is a lot cheaper than buying stadium beer. To truly make a difference, re-entry has to go.

---

Review by Austin Brooks in KIN 435

Whether or not to sell alcohol at college sporting events can be a controversial topic. There are many factors that need to be looked at before the university can make a decision. West Virginia University’s athletic director Oliver Luck is faced with that decision.

West Virginia University’s athletics director Oliver Luck has a very difficult decision to make. There is a major concern about the behavior of fans at WVU’s home football games. The major issue is heavy drinking before games. Many season tickets holders have expressed their concern to Luck stating that they are not going to renew because of the offensive language and the behavior, all fueled by alcohol. His solution, allow beer sales inside stadium.

Lucks decision to allow beer sales inside the stadium was mainly based on getting WVU’s football atmosphere back to a family oriented event, not increased revenue. This could be a good or bad decision. If Luck uses this policy at West Virginia, current season ticket holders may not renew their tickets. If the policy works like Luck plans, the policy will control the heavy drinking before games and could possibly keep the current season ticket holder around for years to come. Another advantage of applying this policy at WVU is the possibility of a sponsorship from major beer companies. Luck stated that this decision in not for raising revenue, but the opportunity for a sponsorship is there. A possible sponsorship could do big things for West Virginia’s athletic department, not just the football team. With a major sponsorship, this could allow WVU to allocate more money to different sport programs, and even the possibility of improved facilities. Luck estimates that the beer sales inside the stadium could increase the athletic department’s $50 million budget with an additional $500,000 to $1.2 million per season, depending on a few variables (team success, weather and kickoff times).

Whatever decision Luck makes, he must keep in mind season ticket holder’s opinions and the overall atmosphere of the game. Season ticket holders are important for any sports organization, and without Luck may be out of a job.

"Gatorade gets a dose of Hope in new deal"

From the SportsBusiness Journal

Review by Joseph Schwartz in KIN 435

Gatorade has added yet another nationally popular athlete to its already broad and powerful promotional arsenal. In the article “Gatorade gets a dose of Hope in new deal,” Fred Dreier of SportsBusiness Journal reported that Gatorade has signed 30-year-old, Hope Sole, who became a national icon when she led the U.S. women’s national team to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final this past summer. Solo signed a multiyear marketing deal, joining teammate Abby Wambach who has been with Gatorade since 2004. Solo’s agent, Richard Motzkin, explained how significantly the U.S. women’s team’s success in the World Cup contributed to her “staggering” increase in awareness with the general public. Solo’s national popularity following the 2011 World Cup has drawn comparisons to that of Mia Hamm’s prominence in 1999 when she led the U.S. women’s national team to win the World Cup over China. Followers of Solo on Twitter skyrocketed from 8,000 to over 250,000 in just over a week following the 2011 World Cup. The article estimates the deal to be in the low six-figure range per year and Motzkin claims for there to be more marketing deals on the horizon for Solo, as she has already signed a deal with Bank of America. Gatorade has sponsored the U.S. women’s national team since 1999 and one of their marketing representatives stated, “Solo is part of Gatorade’s push to diversify its athlete base.” Solo’s popularity among consumers has placed her on par with Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat on the Davie Brown Index (DBI), as her overall awareness jumped to over 6 percent just in the week leading up to the Women’s World Cup Championship against Japan. According to president of Burns Entertainment, Dough Shabelman, “Solo’s combination of leadership, success on the field, physical attractiveness and a recognizable name give her an opportunity to maintain marketability.” With her large increase in positive publicity, Hope Solo should be a huge marketing success for Gatorade. Gatorade will now be able to implement her into advertising commercials in hopes of broadening their outreach to their desired target market.

---

Review by Cara Stecher in KIN 435

The article that we did or our sponsorship article project on was an article entitled “Gatorade gets a dose of Hope in new deal.” This article talked about Hope Solo, goalie for the US Women’s Soccer team, and her new deal with Gatorade. The article tells a little bit about the deal, including that deal was worth somewhere in the six figures. The deal is part of Gatorade’s plan to diversify its athlete base, including other signing deals with other athletes competing in surfing, men’s soccer, and swimming. Typically when someone thinks of Gatorade, we think of more mainstream sports such as football, baseball, and basketball. It is smart for Gatorade to diversify the sports that they are beginning to sponsor so that they can reach as many potential consumers as they possibly can. A person who is a surfer or swimmer maybe more inclined to drink Gatorade products if an athlete in their sport is drinking it. Also, soccer is gaining more and more popularity in the United States and could potentially be a major sport within America.

One of the main goals of the article was to describe the marketability of Hope Solo. It talked about her followers on Twitter jumping from 8,000 followers to 250,000 followers in a little over a week. This shows that due to the women’s soccer success at the World Cup these female athletes are gaining more and more attention. Also, it talked about her impact within the sports world. She has a DBI (Davie Brown Index) similar to Dwyane Wade, which is huge because he is a major name within the sports world. She was also on the cover of Sports Illustrated, increasing to her popularity as well.

Another interesting topic that the article discussed was the fact that Solo is gaining attention for more than just her performance on the soccer field. It attributed to her fame mostly for her athletic abilities, but it also credited her physical attractiveness as being a reason why she has gained so much attention so quickly. Which brings up an interesting question, does an athlete’s physical appearance play a part in the marketability of that particular athlete, especially for female athletes? This can certainly be shown in other sports, for example Jennie Finch (softball), Danica Patrick (racing), Anna Kournikova (tennis), etc.

All in all, I think this article was very intriguing and really showed what attributed to Solo’s fame and how quickly she attained it. Gatorade is very smart for signing a deal with her because she is a female athlete and she is a soccer player, which is two markets that could potentially be big money makers for the company.