Fans surveyed by NU support alcohol sales at Memorial Stadium; sports betting more divisive | Football

The survey, completed by more than 21,000 people, found that 41% of respondents had a “very positive attitude” and 17% had a “somewhat positive” stance toward booze being sold in the stadium, while 14% were neutral. At the same time, 83% of respondents felt positive or neutral about the idea of having alcohol-free sections at the stadium.

Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts told the Journal Star earlier this year that the research he’s studied says the sale of alcohol is not a major driver of attendance, but the survey found that it would have an “overall net positive impact,” on attendance at Memorial Stadium. Of respondents, 22% said it would increase their attendance while only 10% said it would decrease their likelihood of attending a game.

Perhaps not surprisingly, young people said in higher percentages that alcohol sales at the stadium would increase their likelihood of attending a football game.

The University’s Board of Regents last month approved a policy change that clears the way for UNL to decide whether it wants to sell alcohol at on-campus athletics events. NU system President Ted Carter said beer sales will not happen at Memorial Stadium in 2022, but the school did have beer sales for the Big Ten Wrestling tournament at Pinnacle Bank Arena last weekend.

Overall, 21,782 people took the survey – more than 6,000 Husker Athletic Fund donors, nearly 4,000 other football season ticket-holders, 8,400 occasional football attendees and more than 3,300 from the general population – about 9.8% of the nearly 223,000 people who received it.

That group spanned age ranges (median 45-54) and income levels (median $100,000-$149,999 annually), and 79% of the responses came from people who live 150 miles or less from the stadium.

“I think Nebraska fans want to be involved. When people in our state feel like they have part ownership of the department, that’s when we’re at our best,” Alberts told the Journal Star on Feb. 25. “Rather than trying to create separation from donors and fans, I would try to bring people together. And we’re not always going to agree; that’s OK.”

Sports gambling was a more divisive survey issue than alcohol sales in the stadium, but 60% of respondents had a positive or neutral view of the potential for sports betting at Memorial Stadium. That issue was more dramatically split between younger people (49% positive for under 25 and 42% for 25-54) and older people (15% positive for 55-74 and 7% positive over 75).

The committee of community members that Alberts assembled to have broad conversations about the stadium’s future met Monday to discuss the data. The results were released to season ticket-holders and the general public Tuesday.

Alberts announced in late January that some of the end zone seats at Memorial Stadium will be widened from 18 inches in time for the 2022 season, which will result in a modest capacity reduction. More dramatic changes are certainly possible in the future.

It’s clear why that happened quickly. Seat comfort (42%) tied cost considerations as the most-cited reason for not attending games, and 77% of respondents cited seat comfort as something that could improve – wireless/mobile connectivity checked in a distant second at 24%. Seat comfort also ranked lowest in a satisfaction ranking of more than 30 gameday features (3.0 on a 1-7 scale). Event staff and ushers (5.9), overall atmosphere (5.9), scoreboards and video boards (5.8), security (5.8) and the radio broadcast (5.7) scored the top five spots.

Nebraska fans were overall interested in various forms of premium seating options that the university proposed in the survey, which could be another signal that an overall reduction in capacity could be a part of future plans.

Along the same lines, 72% of respondents had a positive or neutral view of a seat equity plan at the stadium, which Alberts has talked about since he took over as the athletic director in July. He has noted in the past that 29% of season ticket-holders don’t pay seat-licensing fees, while others may be paying thousands of dollars in fees and posited that more premium seating and a more equitable ticket structure throughout the stadium could make the experience more affordable for more people.

“As we’ve said repeatedly, this whole strategy is not about trying to extract more money from our fans,” Alberts said. “This is about equity. This is about access. You know, we need to protect our business model. But it has never been created to say, ‘OK, where can we find more money?’ That’s not what the objective is.”

Overall, Alberts called the data “fascinating” and expressed excitement about pushing forward with the conversations surrounding the future of the stadium.

“I know you can’t run an athletic department like a poll. But this isn’t my athletic department,” Alberts said. “This isn’t my office. This happens to be the office of the athletic director. I just happen to be here right now.”