After half a season of allowing alcohol sales in Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville police have not seen any increase in arrests or disruptive behavior at football games.
At the SEC spring meetings last May, the SEC’s 14 presidents and 14 athletic directors voted to approve the sale of alcohol at SEC games. SEC schools were given the go-ahead to choose whether they would permit the purchase of booze at their events. Arkansas was the third SEC school to lift its ban on alcohol sales. Alcohol sales are limited to beer and wine that must be sold at designated locations, and cannot be sold by vendors in seating areas. Alcohol will not be allowed in the student section. Alcohol has been available since 2014 at Arkansas football games, but only in suites and private club areas. The conference also enforced rules on when alcohol sales will stop during events. The time limits include halting sales at the end of the third quarter during football games, the conclusion of the 7th inning at baseball games, and the second-half TV timeout in basketball games. “As far as the Fayetteville Police Department is concerned, we haven’t seen an uptick in any of that kind of stuff,” Fayetteville Police Sgt. Anthony Murphy said. “I don’t think we have seen any kind of uptick in public intoxication or DWI or anything like that.”
UAPD Capt. Gary Crain said that there were no discernable issues so far, and cited the mere eight arrests that UA police made over the first three football games.
Of the eight arrests, there were four charges of public intoxication, two charges of minor in possession, and one charge for driving while intoxicated. Athletics director Hunter Yurachek has said in interviews that the university will be on the lookout for a possible increase of alcohol-related incidents. Even with the addition of HogTown, a street festival that takes place just outside of Razorback Stadium, the beer garden and live music have not increased arrests. “When I first heard that they were going to be selling alcohol at the football games, it made me think that people would be drinking there, and by the time the game was over they would want to go home and go to bed,” Murphy said. The university is yet to experience the effects of alcohol at basketball and baseball games, but the attendance at both sporting events pales in comparison to that of a football game. Baum-Walker Stadium hosted an average of 8,719 fans a game last year, and Bud Walton Arena has brought in 16,003 people a game since its inception in 1994, but Arkansas football games have drawn in an average of 57,565 fans so far in 2019, according to attendance reported by the athletics department. “None of those sporting events are a huge issue for us,” Murphy said. “We’re so used to working special events and dealing with crowds that have been drinking that it’s just old hat to us, we know how to deal with it.”
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AuthorSenior journalism student at the University of Arkansas with the aim to be a sports reporter. Archives
December 2019
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