On Monday, October 14, 2013, the Dallas News published an article titled Thinking about Drinking: Beer sales at college stadiums worth considering. The article had a picture of Texas A&M Aggies fans preparing for the tailgate prior to the game against Alabama Crimson Tide. This article caught my attention because I did attend Texas A&M for a year and I have been to the tailgate and I guess I'm leaning toward the opinion of the author, Tod Robberson.
Tod Robberson has a degree in bachelor of science in communications/journalism from Texas Tech University and has a master's degree in arts in Arab studies from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He spent 10 years as foreign correspondent and assistant foreign editor at the Washington Post and have worked in many countries such as Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq, Syria, and El Salvador.
This article mentions how several Texas universities are considering of allowing the sale of beer at their football stadiums. Tod Robberson says "It could be a major moneymaker." I believe that selling beer at football stadiums can and will be a major moneymaker. Tod Robeberson mentions "The big fear, of course, is that this would somehow corrupt our youth, lead to underage binge drinking and send the wrong message to college students, who otherwise would not even think about drinking alcohol or even think about thinking about drinking alcohol until they were 21. If only there were that much thinking going on to begin with."
Let's face it. There is underage binge drinking happening every weekend in Texas A&M anyway when there is barely anything to do in College Station to begin with. During football game season, it gets worse as students all go out to north gate after the game to either celebrate with drinking or get over the misery with drinking. I believe that the real big fear is students dying due to car accidents or something worse.
The article mentions how easy it is to access alcohol outside the stadium and it is very true. Just drive 5 minutes and spec's is right there with every kind of alcohol you could possibly need. Tod Robberson mentions that students are not looking for beer but hard liquor because getting drunk with beer is just hard. "The bigger deal is what colleges and adult enablers already are failing miserably to do: stopping kids from getting access to hard alcohol outside the stadium. Crack down on tailgate parties, and the vast majority of your problems will be solved. Then let the vendors do their jobs inside the stadiums, and punish them severely if they violate the law." I don't necessarily believe that kids should be stopped from getting hard alcohol outside the stadium since if they are over 21, then they have the right to get hard alcohol. It's just the kids, who are under 21, are the problems.
I believe selling beers at the football stadium would be a great idea. Students will not need to get alcohol outside the stadium then get drunk then drive to stadium to enjoy the football games. Plus, beers will hardly get you any drunk compared to hard liquor. Plus, school will be able to make money off of beers they sell. Just about a week ago, I went to the Union in University of Texas at Austin to play some bowling with few friends and I noticed that they were selling cans of beer. It was $3 a can, but it still gave us joy that we were able to drink and have fun.