The University of Wisconsin-Madison has sold $1.2 million worth of alcohol from football games, according to The Cap Times.
Camp Randall began selling alcohol in the general seating area at the opening game of the football season against Western Michigan on Aug. 30, becoming the 16th university out of 18 Big Ten schools to sell alcohol in the general seating area.
Approximately 52% of the alcohol concessions money, along with 25% of suite commissions, goes to the UW Athletics department based on its contract with food distributor Learfield Levy Foodservice.
Alcohol sold includes beer, wine and pre-packaged alcohol such as hard seltzers. Most beers sell for $11.99 and vodka drinks for $12.49. Drinks are limited to two per person, and anyone appearing under the age of 40 is required to show their ID before purchase. Fans also have access to a text line to report any problems.
A portion of the sales — the greater amount between $400,000 and 25% of total sales — will fund campus initiatives like alcohol-free late night events and student support groups.
Since they started selling alcohol, UW Athletics have made adjustments to concession locations to meet a greater-than-anticipated demand.
Alcohol is also sold at the UW Field House, where the women’s volleyball and men’s wrestling teams compete, among others. Starting last year, sales also began at the Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena, home to basketball and hockey games. Over $1.3 million of alcohol products were sold at home games last year.
UWPD had an increased police presence to monitor conditions on Aug. 30. In the first game, 47 people were ejected, 18 students were arrested and 38 first aid calls were made, according to UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott.
Three people were sent to detoxification centers and five were found with a blood alcohol content above 0.20. These numbers are lower than the first games of previous years, Lovicott said. Subsequent games have seen comparable data to previous years.
Lovicott said UWPD supported the decision to sell alcohol at Camp Randall.
“We had a seat at the table with all of the planning, and we appreciated being a part of the conversation,” Lovicott said.
From police departments across other schools in the Big Ten that had introduced alcohol in the general seating area, UWPD learned the number of alcohol-related incidents had decreased, on average, after schools permitted alcohol sales.
“We don't know for sure, but one of the ideas [is that] because alcohol was not available for purchase at the stadium, more people would consume larger quantities of alcohol to ‘load up’ before going into the game,” Lovicott said.
But the move to sell alcohol has not been without controversy. Timothy Cordes, former director of psychiatry at UW-Madison, started a change.org petition to stop the sales at Camp Randall. The petition currently has 196 signatures.
“I worked at UHS as a psychiatrist for a while, and I think the [drinking] culture is concerning,” Cordes said.
Cordes cited multiple studies on the detrimental effects of alcohol, including a study that found there is no healthy level of alcohol consumption and a study of UW-Madison students of color about the harms of the drinking culture on campus.
“The drinking culture on campus is particularly harmful for marginalized students or students of color,” Cordes said. “And it turns out that in about 50% of sexual assaults, the victim and the perpetrator or both have alcohol in their system. And on college campuses, it might be closer to 79%. So who's this going to affect? It's going to affect vulnerable people.”
In a 2019 campus survey, 26% of female UW-Madison students reported being sexually assaulted since coming to campus.
“Students want to have alcohol. I get that. But sometimes the university should do the right thing even if it's not popular,” Cordes said. “I'm not saying students can't make good choices. But I'm saying a university should make good choices.”
