Net revenue from alcohol sales at Ohio Stadium totaled more than $1.35M this season, which is nearly 16% more than last year, when Ohio State "first started selling beer at the stadium," according to a front-page piece by Jennifer Smola of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. OSU has also "seen a decrease in ejections from the stadium and open-container citations on game days since the school began selling beer at football games." Ejections were down from 103 in '15 to 25 in '16 and 24 in '17. Open-container citations were down from 65 in '15 to four in '16 and two in '17. However, alcohol arrests within the stadium have "increased each season since beer sales began," up from 14 in '15 to 22 last season and 57 this season. But OSU officials said that most of those arrests are of "underage individuals attempting to purchase alcohol, and those arrests did not occur" before '16 when beer was "not sold." OSU would "not provide its gross figures, citing its contract" with concessionaire Levy Restaurants. Meanwhile, Ohio Univ. "raked in more than $66,000 in gross beer sales this season in its first year of expanded sales" at Peden Stadium. Ohio Senior Dir of Communication Services Carly Leatherwood said that beer sales "netted the university $23,100 for its general athletics fund, per the revenue-sharing contract the university has with AVI Foodsystems." Smola noted the Univ. of Toledo "saw the most gross beer sales with nearly $118,800." Bowling Green Univ. had "more than $53,700 in gross beer sales," and Univ. of Akron had nearly $41,700 (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 12/11).
