By Brett Jager
After the recent success of student spirit and support at University of Louisville baseball games, the U of L Athletic Department, as well as the Student Government Association are looking for ways to extend the spirit to other sports. One idea which has been looked into is the possibility of regulated sales of alcohol at events at Cardinal Park, more specifically, soccer games.
“I set objectives at the beginning of the year and one of them was to delve into this,” Trevor Joelson, SGA Student Athletic Director, said. “We are just looking into the possibility and seeing what students think.”
One cannot question the success of regulated alcohol sales at U of L Baseball games. Student support has increased drastically for the team, and the student group the “Bullpen Boozers” was formed. The “Boozers” were actually granted funds from the athletic department to travel with the team this past weekend to Gainesville, Fl., to support the team. Joelson envisions this happening in a similar fashion with the soccer team.
“The reason of interest for this is the success of alcohol sales at baseball games,” Joelson said. “It has been well managed and increased student spirit. A lot of students go for the dollar beers and become committed fans to the team, and this could have the same affect with the soccer team.”
Many students feel the same way on this issue. Junior communications major Steve Gerl feels if alcohol was sold at soccer games, it would create an atmosphere in which more students would want to come out to games.
“I’m a casual soccer fan who really doesn’t attend U of L soccer games,” Gerl said. “But if they started serving alcohol, it would be much more of a party atmosphere, and my friends and I would be more inclined to attend the games.”
Senior marketing major Brian Davis wished this could have happened before he was graduating, but still enjoyed himself doing the same at some baseball games throughout his college career.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Davis said. “I enjoy watching soccer but I never even really thought of going to see U of L play. This definitely would give students an incentive to come out to games. I love going to U of L baseball games on Friday’s sitting back and having a couple beverages with my friends. I hope this all works out because it will help attendance for the soccer team.”
Joelson urged this issue is merely being looked into and nothing is certain. The University of South Florida is currently the only Big East school that sells beer at soccer games. Joelson had a meeting with Provost Shirley Willinghanz and she was very receptive and open to looking into the idea.
“The Provost was very up front with me, and she was very well-informed,” Joelson said. “She asked me to get more hard facts. I have been talking to more and more students and student-athletes about the issue and I have realized how important this would be to enhance spirit especially in the sports played at Cardinal Park.”
Gerl feels that the sale of alcohol at the games will out-do any marketing or promotion that is done to try and get students to come to games because of the lasting value of the experience one will have at a game.
“Promotional items are nice,” Gerl said. “They’re a good way to get students out to the games. But alcohol is a good way of making sure they stay out at the games.”
Now the proposal is not to have alcohol sales at Cardinal Park for every game, but for the weekend games only. The athletic department has shown interest in this, and they informed the Centerplate company, who is ready to accommodate it if it goes through.
“I want to be realistic with this and not jump right into it,” Joelson said. “It’s a sensitive issue and could affect the current family atmosphere at Cardinal Park. We are hoping to do this for Thursday, Friday and Saturday home games after 7 p.m. It could be tough for Thursday because several students do not have class on Fridays and consider that the beginning of the weekend, but the University does not consider the beginning of the weekend until Friday.”
