Bulldogs and beer went together well, and athletics department reaped benefits
How much beer could a Fresno State fan drink if a Fresno State fan could drink beer?
All due respect to the mighty woodchuck, but quite a bit.
The Bulldogs' cut of beer sales from six home football games this season was $90,000 with another $20,000 coming from sales at baseball and softball games, all without a deleterious spike in alcohol-related incidents in or around Bulldog Stadium, Beiden Field and Margie Wright Diamond.
That is a nice chunk of change for an athletic department looking to generate additional revenues to support 21 sports programs.
And Fresno State is hoping to do better next season, when attendance is expected to be better at football games thanks to the Bulldogs coming off a 10-4 season under first-year coach Jeff Tedford. Interim athletics director Steve Robertello said Fresno State will explore ways to streamline sales at Bulldog Stadium.
"We haven't dived in specifically on what we can do there, but we're hoping to do a couple of things to speed up distribution," Robertello said. "I'm not sure if we necessarily provide more places, but the hope is that we can ease the efficiency of the distribution and get more people in and out.
"Obviously, you do it the right way, but if there's an opportunity to explore a better fan experience and more revenue we need to look at it."
Fresno State this academic year was able to sell alcohol at its on-campus venues for the first time since 2006 after California State University Chancellor Timothy White in June repealed a system-wide policy prohibiting the sale and service of alcohol in conjunction with intercollegiate sporting events, as well as the advertising of alcohol on CSU campuses and its athletic facilities.
It did so at football, baseball and softball games with safeguards in place against over-serving customers and to ensure those purchasing beer at games were 21 and older. The Save Mart Center, not a state facility, has been able to offer alcohol since it opened in 2003.
"Pardini's is our concessionaire and all of their servers are trained, and then Pardini's hires some off-duty Fresno (police), some retired Fresno (police) and (private security) officers to come through in plain clothes to monitor both the staff and the fans in our selling areas," said Matt Studwell, assistant athletics director for internal operations and events.
"We brought in an extra security company to just look at the alcohol point of sales, a security company that does a lot of night clubs, bars and beer gardens. We're getting as many eyes on everyone as possible to make sure everyone is doing things properly."
According to university police statistics, there were 28 citations issued at Bulldogs' football games last season related to minors in possession of alcohol or distributing alcohol to a minor, with only nine coming over the last four home games.
There were none issued at the Oct. 28 night game (a loss to UNLV) or the Nov. 25 day game (victory over No. 22 Boise State).
"Anything that happened alcohol-related last year, my understanding is not much different than anything we've had the past three or four years," Robertello said.
"There wasn't anything abnormal. I think we had the right approach. We phased it in appropriately and now we get a chance to go back before this year and evaluate it and see how we want to tweak it to make it better for our fans and potentially bring in some more revenue."
This story was originally published May 30, 2018 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Bulldogs and beer went together well, and athletics department reaped benefits."