English Rugby Beer-Drinking Goes Mobile

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Thirsty rugby fans can get their beer faster this weekend.

In a bid to ease long lines for refreshment, the English Rugby Football Union—governing body

for the game in England—is rolling out mobile payment service ZNAP for the England vs.

Ireland international match Saturday at Twickenham stadium.

Via an app, fans will be able to use their smartphones to order in advance and prepay for food

and drinks at six bars, minimizing wait times before, during and after the game, including at

halftime.

The rugby league aims to roll out the service, operated by scanning QR codes, across all the

stadium’s outlets by the end of the year.

“The platform enables us to speed up shopping times, reduce queues and deliver special offers

and loyalty rewards,” says Sophie Goldschmidt, the league’s chief commercial officer.

Trials at earlier games showed that 67% of those who downloaded the app registered it for use.

ZNAP, which is a product from Hong Kong-based technology company MPayMe, has ambitions

that don’t just rest with sports.

Reflecting the growth of “mobile wallets,” it is targeting all types of events and shopping

experiences, both for consumers and businesses. ZNAP is launching pilots in the U.K., the U.S.

and Southeast Asia.

U.K.-based accountant and rugby player Craig “Fudge” Jones was excited: “Just downloaded

@ZNAP ready for a few drinks at the game tomo!!! COME ON ENGLAND!!.”

Still, some rugby supporters at Saturday’s clash, part of the Six Nations tournament, may find

themselves frustrated. ZNAP is currently available on iOS, BlackBerryBB.T -1.25% and

Android. Rugby fan with a Windows phone? Back to queuing.

University of Texas Announces Partnership with Corona

by Jason Scott

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/drugs-alcohol/university-of-texas-announces-partnership-

with-corona.html?eid=235807042&bid=1804428

July 2017 “Horns Up, Limes In!”

That’s the new slogan Corona Extra has adopted as part of a new sponsorship agreement with the University of Texas athletics department.

Announced this week, the sponsorship will include access to Texas’ football, basketball and baseball programs, a responsible drinking campaign, hospitality, tickets, exposure on the Longhorn Network, and access to the alumni community dubbed the “Texas Exes,” according to Chron.com.

“Texas is proud to join with the Corona Extra team to promote the excitement and pageantry of collegiate sports,” athletic director Mike Perrin said in a statement.

It’s the latest in a wave of collegiate athletics department forays into the beer industry — Texas began selling beer at sporting events two years ago.

The beer brand will unveil a tailgating venue called the “Corona Beach House” for fans outside Darrel K. Royal-Memorial Stadium, and will feature taps with Texas branding.

The deal marks the first time an imported beer brand has partnered with a university in the United States.

LSU Looks to Open Beer Garden at Tiger Stadium

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/event-security/party-lines.html

Details

by Jason Scott

March 2017

LSU is working on plans to bring beer sales to football games for the 2017 season, though

nothing is official just yet.

Plans call for a beer garden concept, which would limit sales to a specific area within Tiger

Stadium. Beer would not be available at regular concessions stands.

According to Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, the school is “aggressively” working to have

a plan in place by the time the season kicks off. The school is in talks with the Southeastern

Conference, working on details. SEC policy currently prohibits member schools from selling

alcohol at athletic events, though stadium club and suite seating are considered separate

structures from stadiums.

The beer garden concept would allow fans without access to those premium seats to purchase

alcohol.

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva has been a proponent of beer sales for years, and told the Baton

Rouge Press Club in 2014 that “it’s going to happen at some point.” Alleva believes expanded

beer sales would not only enhance the fan experience, but also provide a boost to both revenue

and stadium attendance. He's also said that allowing beer sales inside the stadium could even

curb binge drinking among fans.

From AB: How Tailgating Policies Help Schools Control Game Day Alcohol Abuse

University officials haven’t gotten approval for the concept yet, but they are considering possible

locations for the beer garden within the stadium.

LSU would not be the first collegiate program to open their venues to limited alcohol sales.

Reportedly, more than a dozen schools have experimented with similar ideas in recent years,

including Colorado, Florida, Ohio State, Texas and West Virginia.

A September article in Inside Higher Ed found that while there’s been little evidence of attendance

increases after schools began selling alcohol, there has at least been

How Tailgating Policies Help Schools Control Game Day Alcohol Abuse

Details

by Paul Steinbach

July 2003

Whenever Louisiana State University's football schedule produces a marquee Southeastern

Conference matchup, at least 100,000 people roll into Baton Rouge to make the scene — the

invasion beginning Thursday and lasting all weekend. Tiger Stadium (capacity: 91,600) has

managed to squeeze no more than 92,141 fans through its gates (vs. Auburn in 2001), meaning

that on most fall Saturdays, upwards of 10,000 fans descend on Death Valley only to park their

vehicles and party — the time-honored autumn ritual known nationwide as tailgating. Once there,

according to research commissioned by the LSU athletic department, the average tailgater logs

10 hours behind his or her wheels. "Our fans come the earliest, stay the latest and make a real

Mardi Gras out of the football game," says LSU athletic director Skip Bertman.

A colorful picture, for sure, but that many

people in one place for one reason can be

cause for concern. Even lower-profile

programs, such as Division I-AA's University of

Delaware, aren't immune from the potential

problems game-day partying can create.

Excessive tailgating during the Blue Hens' 1998

homecoming resulted in 23 cases of alcohol

poisoning among individuals ranging in age

from 18 to 31, according to athletic director

Edgar Johnson. "We had all three ambulances

in attendance for the football game picking up

alcohol-poisoned tailgaters and taking them to the emergency room at the local hospital,"

Johnson recalls. "After the hospital received about 20 or 22, they called our public safety office

and said, 'Stop sending us your drunks. You have effectively shut down the emergency room.' "

Along with the athletics governing board and the university president, Johnson saw that single

episode as a warning. "We didn't have any tragedies, thank God," he says. "But we thought we

had to create a different environment in which tailgating was taking place."

Delaware is one school among several that in recent years have tried to reconcile the game-day

desires of students, alumni, non-tailgating ticket holders and campus safety personnel. As part of

an overall crackdown on alcohol abuse, Holy Cross in 1999 instituted a policy that limited

pregame tailgating to three hours prior to kickoff and banned kegs, beer balls and other

"common-source, large quantities of alcohol." No game-time tailgating is allowed, nor can fans

regroup around their tables and grills after the game. After arriving at the University of Kansas in

2001, then-athletic director Al Bohl made good on a promise to lift a ban on alcoholic beverages

outside Memorial Stadium, and 10 designated areas for drinking were established. However, in

keeping with a policy restricting alcohol consumption to university-sponsored fundraising events,

fans in these areas were asked to ante up a donation toward the marching band or some other

KU campus organization. Tailgaters at Georgia Southern, meanwhile, have until 30 minutes after

kickoff to either enter the stadium or leave university property, according to a policy implemented

last season.

Delaware, too, has abolished game-time partying, but without the 30-minute grace period. Kickoff

for homecoming has been moved up one hour to noon, further limiting the time frame in which

fans may imbibe on school grounds. Post-game parties are allowed until 5:30 p.m., says

Johnson, "but that intervening three hours that we call a football game allows fans to sober up

and metabolize the alcohol in their system."

Has Johnson's so-called "Get Your Tail into the Game" campaign - which involved banners,

mailings, newspaper ads, and sticker and T-shirt giveaways - worked? Johnson says at least two,

but not more than three, fans were hospitalized with alcohol-related injuries during the

homecoming game last October. The year prior, there were none. "There is a marked dropoff," he

says, "so we feel much more secure about what goes on in our parking lot during the games."

But Johnson also admits that he's not in the parking lot during games. Victoria Melcher, a

Delaware senior during the 2000 season, wrote a letter to the editor of The Review student

newspaper claiming that during the fourth quarter of a game played that September she

witnessed fans drinking wine behind a black Jaguar in full view of university police. "The tailgating

policy itself is not unfair," Melcher wrote. "But the university should either enforce it universally or

not at all."

Johnson doesn't doubt Melcher's account, but he stops short of acknowledging a policy-

enforcement double standard. He says officials early on favored education over oppression.

"She's probably talking about our VIP parking lots," he says, adding such lots require a $275-per-

season pass. "We do universally enforce it, but the VIPs aren't the ones who are drunk. They're

not the ones who are creating any problem for us. You go where the largest number of people are

causing the greatest problem."

Enforcement resources are also a concern at Notre Dame, despite the fact that, unlike many

college campuses, the bulk of football parking is clustered close to the football stadium. With as

many as 20,000 fans entering campus property on any given Saturday with no ticket or intention

of entering the stadium, UND officials have in recent years bolstered their campus police force of

25 uniformed officers with game-day help from the Indiana State Excise Police, not to mention the

City of South Bend police and St. Joseph County sheriff's deputies. Prior to last season, UND

students weren't allowed to host any tailgate party that included the serving of alcohol, a situation

Bill Kirk, associate vice president for residence life, says was "virtually unenforceable."

In 2002, policy revisions relaxed the prohibition, allowing students of legal drinking age to register

an alcohol party in advance and host it within a designated area. "I think the students recognize

that we're trusting them, and they behaved great last year," says Kirk, pointing out that the lot

generated only one underage-drinking citation all season. In such a case, both the offender and

the party's host face university disciplinary measures, the least severe of which is the denial for

the latter of any future tailgate permits. "If they can't host a responsible gathering, then why would

we trust them to do so again?" Kirk says. "We have no problem if a student who's not of age is in

that area, as long as he or she is not consuming and is behaving the way that we expect our

students to behave."

LSU's Bertman concedes that the Mardi Gras atmosphere surrounding Tiger home games, most

of which kick off at 7 p.m., creates a fair share of alcohol-related problems for his school. But of

more pressing concern is the toll tailgating takes on university grounds. Specifically, arborists at

LSU estimate that each of seven fall Saturdays have the potential to cause thousands of dollars

worth of damage to campus landscaping, including flower beds, sprinkler heads and oak trees.

The oaks, which number in the hundreds, carry an estimated value to the university of $38 million,

according to Bertman, who introduced a tailgating policy last season that prohibits off-street

parking. By pulling their cars under the oak trees for shaded tailgate parties, fans were essentially

hastening the destruction of the trees' root systems.

Concrete bollards blocking access to these spots were installed as part of a half million-dollar

pledge by the athletic department to preserve LSU's natural assets over the coming years. "We

needed to set a tone to make sure that our assets were protected," Bertman says. "The athletic

department gives about $6.5 million a year to the university, but $500,000 of it is earmarked for

the environmental movement."

The movement met some resistance among the hundred or so tailgaters who for years met under

the same 75-year-old trees in the heart of campus. They can still picnic beneath the oaks; they

just have to leave their vehicles behind. "Some have to park a little farther away, and they have to

carry their equipment," says Bertman. "For that, I'm sorry, because tailgating is a very important

part of our athletic program."

Johnson and Kirk, meanwhile, make no apologies for the stance their schools have taken against

all-day tailgate binges. The game-time party ban at Delaware resulted in roughly a dozen season-

ticket cancellations in 1999, while season-ticket sales have increased during each of the four

succeeding years to a record 9,000-plus. Average regular-season game attendance, which never

topped 20,000 prior to the policy, now does so annually. "We're trying to make the ballgame and

the surrounding areas accommodating to people," says Johnson. "We're trying to make sure that

the football game is the event, that it's a fun time, that it's family- and patron-friendly."

"We're not hosting a bar," says Kirk, whose school last year joined the growing number that clear

their lots at kickoff. "People come for the game, and if they want to have a drink and a sandwich

before and after, we'll accommodate that. But we're not a place where we open up our campus to

folks just coming to party."