SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that he expects the conference's stance on alcohol sales at stadiums to be "subject to ongoing debate and dialogue," according to Blake Toppmeyer of the Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL. Current SEC rules "prevent alcoholic beverages from being sold or consumed in stadiums except for private or leased areas of the stadium, such as premium seating areas." Debate on the rule has "been ongoing since last year, and the topic of alcohol sales probably will come up at the SEC spring meetings in May." Changing the rule would "require a majority vote of the conference's 14 member schools' presidents or chancellors." Sankey said, "From a stadium-wide standpoint, there are those who think that, let's just take all the restraint off at the conference level. But that's not unanimous, and I'm not sure it's, right now, a majority position." Sankey: "The responsible way to handle this is continuing the dialogue, see how we can manage oversight properly but still make sure our stadiums are family friendly" (KNOXNEWS.com, 4/16).
PICKING UP THE TAB: In Birmingham, Tom Green noted Auburn baseball's Plainsman Park "became one of the latest SEC venues to permit limited alcohol sales." Though before Auburn could open the gates to Plainsman Patio -- the fenced-off area at the ballpark where the sale of alcohol has been permitted during certain games -- the school's athletic department had to "first submit a comprehensive plan to the SEC offices." According to Sankey, Auburn -- as any other SEC school would have to -- "provided 'a plan that meets the expectation on oversight, private area and controlled space for review' to the league office before they could begin the sale of alcohol at select baseball games this season." Other schools have alcohol available within premium seating, that "fall within the SEC's policy of 'restricted limited access' of alcohol" (AL.com, 4/16).
