Arizona Basketball: Liquor License approval for McKale Center stalls due to complaint
Arizona Basketball games were going to grow up a bit, and fans were going to be able to purchase alcohol at McKale as early as this season. But not now, or at least not yet.
Well, someone was going to complain. Arizona Athletic Director Dave Heeke is trying hard to get fans what they are screaming for, a liquor license. But first, the school had to apply to the Arizona State Liquor Board which they did.
According to Joe Ferguson of the Arizona Daily Star, a protest filed with the Arizona State Liquor Board by one James Bly, a local Tucson resident of Tucson who is also a retired from being an administrative law judge who “Presided over thousands of driver’s license cases with the Motor Vehicle Division that involved DUIs.”
"“I am concerned that selling liquor at athletic events at the University of Arizona will result in more crowd violence, the sale of liquor to minors, and the possibility of lawsuits against the University if a fan at a game is impaired and is in an automobile accident after the game and injures someone,” he wrote. – According to Ferguson"
Now I totally understand Bly’s concern, as a parent the last thing I would want is anyone getting hurt or injured or hurting or injuring anyone, believe me. But today’s generation of young people is way different from the last. They either designate a driver, or they share an uber, or they walk from one side of campus to another. The millennials are very aware of drinking and driving and plan ahead.
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When I grew up, there was not much education on drinking and driving. A lot of people drove drunk. There was no Uber or Lyft and in those days no one would take a taxi.
At the UofA in about 2009-ish, before Uber, taxi cab drivers who worked on campus would pass out their business cards so that the students could call them when they needed a ride home.
These days, students of age and underage use their phone to call a Lyft or Uber driver to pick them up. They know when the driver is coming to get them, they know when the driver will arrive and what the car looks like, how much it will cost and if they want to share a ride. It’s so much more sophisticated. Friends can even schedule Ubers for friends from anywhere in the country.
The thing that gets me the most? University Ave is full of bars and liquor. A lot of alumni and students want to drink, so instead of buying a ticket and going to the game, they go to a bar on University and feed the coffers of the businesses drinking and watching the game on TV. The school gets no ticket revenue and no sales from alcohol.
If an under-age student wants to drink, they will find a way to drink, even if they are still in high school. There will be plenty 21-and-over of their friends willing to help. The under-age kids pregame in cars, it’s called a ‘car barring.’ And the rest get all liquored up at their friend’s houses in legitimate pre-game activities before they come to a sporting event. This happens all over the country.
Bly has a great point about people suing the school. But people who sue schools will sue the schools even if they didn’t buy alcohol at McKale. I think we need to address under-age drinking as a whole as a society, but not having alcohol at McKale will not stop any drinking. Maybe he is just trying to start the conversation and that is admirable.
A good solution may be to limit how many beers or glasses of wine people can buy; I honestly don’t know how you could do that. Maybe an app where you have to use your finger to prove it’s you? Also, possibly don’t serve high content alcohol, or stop selling in the second half of the game.
In some ways, it may be easier to control or limit drinking while in the arena because there are no controls outside the arena.
Fans drink a ton outside McKale center, a lot more than they would inside the arena. For example, listen to this news report from Phoenix about fans up in Tempe, fans drinking in bars:
Arizona’s baseball field, Hi Corbett, already sells alcohol, and we haven’t heard of any issues stemming from drinking at baseball games. Please let us know if you know differently.
I’m thinking new revenue from alcohol sales could help Arizona Athletics which is trying to figure out how to pay off their old football coach and hire a new high-profile coach. A new indoor practice field is in the pipeline as well. Lagging ticket sales are not helping pad the bank account to pay for these things or better wi-fi (my pet peeve) either.
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In a perfect world, the complaint would be valid as it is well intended and meaningful, which it is. But the real world is not perfect, and the reality is that everyone who wants to drink is drinking and will drink with or without a liquor license.