‘It’s a fan amenity’ — Alcohol sales about meeting evolving expectations of Husker fans

Now, just weeks ahead of the tipoff of the 2022-23 seasons, those talks could become a reality.

“The time just seems right to us to move forward with this now,” University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green said.

The NU Board of Regents and Lincoln City Council will consider amending an agreement to allow for the sale of beer, wine and liquor at Husker games hosted at Pinnacle Bank Arena for the next two years.

Regents will take up the issue on Sept. 30 at a meeting to be held on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus, while the Lincoln City Council will consider it in the coming weeks.

For the university, allowing the Husker faithful to buy and consume alcohol at a game is a way of meeting fans’ evolving expectations, while the expanded sales at the arena will provide a financial bump for the city.

According to the amended agreement between both parties included in the regents’ board agenda, 90% of the net revenue from beer, wine, and alcohol sales at Husker games will be returned to city coffers, while the remaining 10% will be funneled to the university.

Husker athletic director Trev Alberts said UNL estimates it will receive roughly $100,000 from liquor sales — an amount that pales in comparison to the revenue potential of a new multimedia rights deal the Athletic Department announced with PlayFly, also on Thursday.

“We’re not serving alcohol at Pinnacle Bank Arena to see how much money we can make,” Alberts told reporters.

If the deal seems lopsided in favor of the city, that’s because Lincoln, through ASM Global, the firm it hired to manage Pinnacle Bank Arena, bears the cost of running the venue.

Alcohol will be served at Husker basketball games under the arena’s liquor license, as well as at the expense of its alcohol liability insurance policy, which is in the amount of $10 million, and by its staff, which are trained to prevent underage drinking or from overserving patrons.

The city also retains responsibility for choosing what concessions are sold at Husker home games, including all alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, through the university can provide input in what those items may be.

The responsibility for setting prices and ensuring adequate staffing to handle Husker fans’ hunger and thirst also falls under the city’s purview, according to the agreement.

That all of those factors come baked into UNL’s partnership with Pinnacle Bank Arena made sense for the Athletic Department to try offering alcohol at Husker contests for the first time, Alberts said.

The two-year agreement — the item to be considered by regents calls for revisiting the deal at the conclusion of the 2023-24 basketball season — will allow the department to see if it makes sense to continue doing so in the future.

Or if it would make sense to expand alcohol sales to other venues, Alberts said.

Unlike many other collegiate athletics venues where alcohol was introduced in order to boost revenue streams, Alberts said the Huskers’ dedicated fan base hasn’t needed beer sales to fill stadiums and arenas.

At his previous job as athletic director at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, for example, Alberts said the decision to sell alcohol at Baxter Arena for Maverick athletics was made for business reasons.

“If alcohol wasn’t part of it, our numbers would have looked significantly different,” he said of UNO’s agreement with its concessions vendor.

Since first being introduced at football stadiums or basketball arenas around the country, more athletic departments have evolved from viewing alcohol as a source of revenue to an option fans have come to expect, Alberts said.

“At our level, you’re not naïve to the revenue opportunity, but that’s not the driver,” Alberts said. “It’s a fan amenity.”

Alberts said the success of alcohol sales at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, which were hosted by UNL at Pinnacle Bank Arena in March, helped clear the way for the same to take place in the upcoming hoops seasons.

There were no incidents reported during the event, Alberts said, and there was little in the way of binge drinking, while the revenue generated was enough to offset the expenses of holding the meet at the arena.

That gave the university confidence it could work for basketball. But, at least for the time being, that’s where the beer sales will stop.

NU President Ted Carter, who pledged to bring any expansion of alcohol sales at Husker home games to the Board of Regents for their approval, said there are no plans to open the taps at other venues in the near term.

“We have the benefit of seeing this as a two-year pilot,” Carter added. “We’ll make sure we’re paying attention to the details and the data to see how it’s going. Every venue is different and has different complexities, so if it makes sense and it’s right for the fan experience, we’ll take a look at it.”

But, as the university announced its intention to begin planning for a major renovation of Memorial Stadium, administrators said they will consider if and how alcohol sales could be offered at Husker football games in the future.

“That’s got to be part of all of it,” Alberts said.

As the Athletic Department weighs the pros and cons of keeping concessions in-house or hiring a vendor, considers what facility upgrades may be needed to keep the stadium viable for a second century and listens to what fans need, Alberts said alcohol is on the table.

“These are all questions that we have no agenda behind, but I think it’s a real opportunity for us,” he said, adding: “We would never even consider alcohol sales in the stadium until you have the infrastructure in place.”

Currently, there’s no way to integrate it into the existing concession stands and a spotty wireless internet connection could make it difficult for vendors to sell from other stands in the concourse, Alberts said.

And, while fans of Garth Brooks were able to buy beer when the country music icon hosted a concert in Memorial Stadium, Alberts said the experience offered a pretty clear look at how prepared Husker Athletics would need to be when it comes to allowing alcohol sales in the venue.

“We’re not ready,” he said. “Did I say that too fast?”