I think we can say this now and with complete agreement: The beer sales policy worked. Our ethics and opinions may differ, but it worked.
The net income wasn’t as high as the far end of the projection suggested, but it was below the low end. Mix in the ad revenue and the pouring rights money and, in all, the final figure is right in the middle.
There were no brawls. There was no singular incident that made you say, “Sheesh, this is what happens when you sell beer in the stadium.” I don’t even think it affected the crowd one way or the other — and remember, Dana Holgorsen called out his fans early on in this season.
So it is what it is — a profitable venture and one I bet continues in the Big 12. Whether a school is allowed to sell beer isn’t covered in the league’s bylaws and appears to be something the school and the conference figure out themselves. WVU makes money off of this, which is good for the school, and the practice hasn’t embarrassed anyone, which is good for the Big 12.
Basically, nothing went wrong, which means it will go on.
The number of police cases at the school’s first four home games dropped 64.5 percent, to 24 from 68, from the same number of contests last year, according to WVU Police Chief Bob Roberts. He estimated that the decrease was about 35 percent in incidents specifically related to alcohol use.
Calls to police dropped 15 percent, to 149 from 176, and arrests dropped 20.5 percent, to 62 from 78, Roberts said.
Other athletic directors and a state legislator have called to inquire about beer sales, Luck said. He declined to identify them.
The next challenge? How to make more money off of it … and you have to wonder if sales in the Coliseum are on tap.
