Alcohol sales coming to UK baseball, softball games; football games could be next
Four years after the Southeastern Conference allowed schools to begin selling alcohol at sporting events, beer and seltzer sales are coming to UK baseball and softball games.
Kentucky announced the policy change Friday, calling the decision a “pilot program” that will help determine if alcohol will be sold to fans in the general seating areas at football games in the fall.
“Our priority is, as always, to positively impact our student athletes and the experience of our fans,” UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in a news release. “As has been our longstanding practice, we approached this deliberately, keeping in mind our priorities and principles. We focused on data and the lessons learned and best practices from other institutions. After careful consideration of these factors, we concluded that the time is right to implement a pilot program at baseball and softball games this season so that we can learn more.”
Beer and seltzer products will be sold at Kentucky Proud Park and John Cropp Stadium in cans or cups. There will be a limit of two drinks per transaction with identification check required with each purchase. Alcohol sales will stop after the completion of the top of the seventh inning in baseball and the top of the fifth inning in softball.
Barnhart has been the target of significant criticism since the SEC allowed alcohol sales because UK has limited them to only premium seating areas since 2019. In a Q&A included with Friday’s announcement, the athletics department wrote, “This is a significant change and we wanted to monitor how this affected the home atmosphere and gameday-management operations at other league schools. In recent years, the norm has shifted and fans have come to expect beer as an amenity at entertainment events.”
UK acknowledged the possibility of an additional revenue stream from alcohol sales factored in the decision but wrote, “In making our decision, revenue considerations come in a distant third to the student and fan experiences.”
As for alcohol sales at football games, UK’s announcement pointed to the summer for that decision.
“This is a good place for us to start,” UK wrote in the Q&A in response to a question about how the football decision will be made. “We are approaching this in a deliberate and thoughtful manner. We will see what we learn from the pilots and continue to study information available from league institutions and other sources.”