Ole Miss would become the seventh SEC school to implement general alcohol sales this fallOLE MISS
Ole Miss interim AD Keith Carter said that the administration "will meet later this week with hopes of reaching a consensus" on the school's stance on alcohol sales in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, according to Joshua Clayton of the student newspaper the DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN. Carter "expects an official announcement sometime next week before the Rebels’ home opener against Arkansas on Sep. 7." Six SEC schools have confirmed they will "sell beer and wine to fans in general seating of their football stadiums since the conference lifted its ban early this summer." Ole Miss' three-month silence on the issue was "amplified by an announcement from Southern Mississippi last week that they will begin to sell alcohol in M.M. Roberts Stadium this season, disgruntling most fans and boosters." Carter said, "We know that alcohol sales in our athletic venues is something that’s going to happen at some point. ... We just want to make sure that whether it be for football or basketball or baseball, we have all the resources and have done our due diligence to make sure we can handle that" (DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN, 8/27).
READY TO ROAR: In Baton Rouge, Brooks Kubena noted with LSU beginning general alcohol sales at Tiger Stadium on Saturday, "more than 200 extra hired staff will open the trucks, carry the beer to the stands and the 40 new portable concession locations, remove the empties from the 150 new trash cans once the beers have been cracked open and poured, and then dump the carted contents into several two-yard and six-yard wide dumpsters hidden inside and outside" the venue. LSU Senior Associate AD Robert Munson said that Tiger Stadium itself "does not have substantial enough cold storage, particularly frozen storage, to hold and keep cool the tens of thousands of beer cans that will arrive on game day." LSU is "leaning on its vendor, Aramark," to "solve the issue." As beer cans "run low in the ice tubs at concessions stands, Aramark employees will be restocking with beers retrieved" from trucks containing 80 tons of ice. Beverage temperature is "even more of a priority because of the SEC's policy that all beer and wine must be poured into a cup upon purchase." Because employees will have to "crack open cans and pour them into cups, the wait for a purchased beer is also longer." Munson said that LSU "studied 'probably a dozen' different ways to pour a beer to be as efficient as possible" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 8/25).
