Beer sales are coming to Boone Pickens Stadium — and all other Oklahoma State athletic venues — this fall.
After a pilot program for beer sales at baseball and softball games this spring, OSU announced Thursday it would begin selling beer at up to 22 locations adjacent to concession stands in Boone Pickens Stadium this football season. The beer sales will include craft selections. Alcohol has previously only been available on the suite and club levels of the stadium.
One other major change to the OSU game-day experience comes along with in-stadium beer sales: a no re-entry policy. Spectators no longer will be permitted to leave the stadium and return as they have in the past at football games.
The beer sales are the latest move by the OSU athletic department to try to improve the fan experience at football games. OSU is completing construction on a $5 million video board this summer and announced earlier this week it would spend more than $1.5 million on concession enhancements. Those improvements include a food court in the West end zone plaza that will feature restaurants such as Aspen Coffee, Chick-fil-A, Curty Shack and Firehouse Subs this fall. (More on that can be seen here.)
“That is our beginning effort that we will be continuing over the next several years to continue to provide fans with an experience inside the stadium so they feel like they don’t have to leave and in fact may not want to leave,” deputy athletic director Chad Weiberg said.
Weiberg said the decision to end re-entry was not taken lightly. OSU visited with peer institutions that implemented alcohol sales, as well as the OSU Police Department.
“We also firmly believe that our fans are a part of our team,” Weiberg said. “We need them to be in the stadium at kickoff, want them to be in the stadium at kickoff and then we need and want them to be in the stadium at the start of the second half. When our team is taking the field at both parts of the game we want them to look up into the stands and see the Cowboy fans there cheering them on.”
OSU chief of police Leon Jones said the change will improve safety on game day.
”Other schools that we have talked to have experienced a decrease in overall consumption and overuse of alcohol in and around their stadiums once they introduced sales in the venue, and we believe the same could happen at Boone Pickens Stadium,” Jones said.
Fans will be permitted to purchase two beers at a time, though employees will be trained and have the ability to stop serving if they believe it’s necessary. Beer sales will end at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Oklahoma State also will sell beer at women’s soccer games this fall and at Gallagher-Iba Arena during men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling competitions this winter.
Weiberg said Thursday he did not have an estimate for the amount of revenue beer sales will bring to the athletic department. He said it isn’t the driving factor behind this decision.
Weiberg said revenue generated from beer sales will be reinvested in future improvements to the fan experience.
“It really does come back to the fan experience and being able to provide the fans in the stadium with this option, with this choice,” he said.
After a pilot program for beer sales at baseball and softball games this spring, OSU announced Thursday it would begin selling beer at up to 22 locations adjacent to concession stands in Boone Pickens Stadium this football season. The beer sales will include craft selections. Alcohol has previously only been available on the suite and club levels of the stadium.
One other major change to the OSU game-day experience comes along with in-stadium beer sales: a no re-entry policy. Spectators no longer will be permitted to leave the stadium and return as they have in the past at football games.
The beer sales are the latest move by the OSU athletic department to try to improve the fan experience at football games. OSU is completing construction on a $5 million video board this summer and announced earlier this week it would spend more than $1.5 million on concession enhancements. Those improvements include a food court in the West end zone plaza that will feature restaurants such as Aspen Coffee, Chick-fil-A, Curty Shack and Firehouse Subs this fall. (More on that can be seen here.)
“That is our beginning effort that we will be continuing over the next several years to continue to provide fans with an experience inside the stadium so they feel like they don’t have to leave and in fact may not want to leave,” deputy athletic director Chad Weiberg said.
Weiberg said the decision to end re-entry was not taken lightly. OSU visited with peer institutions that implemented alcohol sales, as well as the OSU Police Department.
“We also firmly believe that our fans are a part of our team,” Weiberg said. “We need them to be in the stadium at kickoff, want them to be in the stadium at kickoff and then we need and want them to be in the stadium at the start of the second half. When our team is taking the field at both parts of the game we want them to look up into the stands and see the Cowboy fans there cheering them on.”
OSU chief of police Leon Jones said the change will improve safety on game day.
”Other schools that we have talked to have experienced a decrease in overall consumption and overuse of alcohol in and around their stadiums once they introduced sales in the venue, and we believe the same could happen at Boone Pickens Stadium,” Jones said.
Fans will be permitted to purchase two beers at a time, though employees will be trained and have the ability to stop serving if they believe it’s necessary. Beer sales will end at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Oklahoma State also will sell beer at women’s soccer games this fall and at Gallagher-Iba Arena during men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling competitions this winter.
Weiberg said Thursday he did not have an estimate for the amount of revenue beer sales will bring to the athletic department. He said it isn’t the driving factor behind this decision.
Weiberg said revenue generated from beer sales will be reinvested in future improvements to the fan experience.
“It really does come back to the fan experience and being able to provide the fans in the stadium with this option, with this choice,” he said.
