Alcohol policy should come from Mizzou this week

With the home opener a month from Wednesday, Mizzou fans should find out in the next few days whether the University will be selling beer and wine at home sporting events this year. A source told PowerMizzou.com that the policy should be announced in the next 48 to 72 hours.

While our source did not confirm that Mizzou will be selling alcohol, that has widely been the expectation all summer. In late May, the Southeastern Conference listed its ban on selling alcohol in non-premium seating areas. Beginning on August 1, schools were allowed to sell beer and wine stadium-wide at sporting events if they chose to do so.

"I think leaving it up to the schools to decide I think is where we ended and I think that's always probably the better of those because each situation is different in how they do it," Mizzou Director of Athletics Jim Sterk said in a meeting with reporters on June 20. "They wanted to keep some guidelines so they'd keep some things consistent in it and I think we may be the only league that has guidelines like that."

All along, Mizzou has simply said that it would look at the positives and negatives of selling alcohol. On the plus side, some schools have projected revenues of half a million to a million dollars, though many variables go into that figure so Mizzou has hesitated to project a figure. In June, Sterk cited information that legal incidents tend to decline at stadiums where alcohol is available for sale.

"I think it surprises most folks, the MUPD are really in favor of serving alcohol inside the stadium," Sterk said. "(Doug Schwann) gave us a lot of good feedback and his staff has given us a lot of good feedback of why they would like it. We've had studies from Ohio State that it reduced the number of arrests and issues that they have and I think rather than outside, they'd rather have it in a controlled environment."

Sterk is aware of potential negatives to the decision to sell alcohol as well.

""I think fans don't want the experience impacted in a negative way," he said. "They like the college or an SEC model versus the pro model. So we can't let it become that. And I think that's the thing that we have to look at is what can we do to create environments? Have an alcohol-free zone or section? We're looking at all those things and we want to come up with the best plan that I think people can be happy with."

An announcement from Mizzou on its policy going forward could come as soon as Tuesday.