Progress Towards Alcohol Sales at UA Athletics Events Stalls after Latest City Council Policy Shift

With the Tuscaloosa City Council voting to enact fees at events where alcohol is served, Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne announced that the university has paused its movement towards selling alcohol at sporting events.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It appears that sales of alcohol to the majority of fans attending athletic events on the University of Alabama's campus will have to be delayed once again.

On Feb. 8, the Tuscaloosa City Council unanimously voted in favor of adopting a fee structure increase for ticketed events in the city where alcohol is sold and at least 1,000 people were in attendance. The adopted policies would increase ticket prices by $1 per ticket at any event with a capacity from 1,000-19,999 people, $2 per ticket at events hosting 20,000-49,999 people and $3 for any event hosting 50,000 people or more.

On Monday morning, Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne posted a statement to Twitter, citing the recent policies adopted by the Tuscaloosa City Council as a reason to delay the sales of alcohol at UA sporting events.

"It is very unfortunate that the City of Tuscaloosa's plan would unreasonably target Alabama Athletics and our fans with a service fee on all tickets where alcohol is sold, even tickets sold to children," Byrne's statement reads. "There are so many positive impacts our athletics events — and the University as a whole — have provided that are being discounted, including the extraordinary economic and tax benefits to the city."

Byrne went on to discuss the current taxes and fees that Alabama Athletics already pays for athletics events hosted on campus.

"Contrary to reports, we currently pay 10% sales tax on all ticket sales with 3% going directly to the City," Byrne wrote. "That, alone, is estimated to be $1.3 million for this fiscal year. Our concessionaire also pays the City 10% sales tax on concession revenue from all athletics events, generating approximately $125,000 annually. In addition to the taxes paid directly from Alabama Athletics, fans and visiting teams also pay City lodging taxes for overnight stays and City sales taxes at restaurants, bars and stores. And while we greatly appreciate the partnership with and services provided by the City public safety personnel, our athletics events are primarily staffed by UAPD, our security resource officers and privately-hired security.

"For these reasons and more, we don't think this is a reasonable approach that the City is attempting to take, and pending further review of this service fee, Alabama Athletics will not be moving forward with alcohol sales at this time."

In a recent interview with The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa chief financial officer Carly Standridge claimed that the reasoning behind the adoption of the policy by the City Council was that of public safety. By enforcing fees on events where alcohol is sold, the funds would then go towards paying public safety operations. However, as Byrne stated in his statement, the majority of UA athletic events are staffed by UAPD and private security rather than public safety workers.

The City Council's adoption of the new policy came just a week after it approved the motion to allow the sale of beer, wine and hard seltzers at Coleman Coliseum, the university's basketball and gymnastics arena.