Revenue from the Univ. of Illinois' public beer sales at Memorial Stadium and State Farm Center is "expected to top $100,000 in its first year," according to Ben Zigterman of the Champaign NEWS-GAZETTE. However, Illinois Senior Associate AD/Business Development Marty Kaufmann said that "overhead costs involved with setting up the sales will lower profits, especially in Year 1." Kaufmann said, "There will probably be an increase in the low six figures. But we've found when researching this that Year 1, you have some operational costs. Everybody thinks there's going to be a windfall, but ... that's not necessarily the case right away." Zigterman noted part of the school's revenue increase will "go toward paying for more security at games," even though school officials "expect alcohol-related incidents to decrease." The school has "increasingly tested the idea, selling alcoholic beverages to premium ticket holders" at Memorial Stadium since '08 and at State Farm Center since '15. Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen, who is also the city's liquor commissioner, said that she "doesn't have a problem with expanding beer sales, especially because fans in the premium seats could already drink alcohol." She added that it "always seemed inequitable that fans who didn't buy expensive tickets couldn't buy a beer" (Champaign NEWS-GAZETTE, 4/4).
