Citing a successful trial run at Kentucky baseball games this season, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart on Friday announced that alcohol will be sold at all UK Athletics events beginning with home football games this summer.
Barnhart, who addressed the media on a number of topics coinciding with the end of the 2022-23 athletics calendar, said the pilot initiative at Kentucky Proud Park went well, had no real issues, and enhanced the fan experience.
"In an effort to continue that, we're going to expand those sales to all of our athletic venues and events this year, football events, events at Rupp Arena, and our other sports venues," Barnhart said.
"In making the decision, we looked at the fan experience, the experience of our student-athletes, and our capacity to manage the events well. I think our people will do that well, obviously on a much larger scale as we move into a couple of other bigger venues, so we have some training and getting ready to do."
The plan is to offer beer and seltzer beverages like the ones that were available at Kentucky Proud Park for baseball games this season. UK reported approximately $110,000 in alcohol sales at those games.
Barnhart said financial incentives were not part of the equation. "It's not a revenue decision... Even if we make some money, it's not going to be life-changing for our programs, so I don't ever want to let that drive what we do."
The SEC voted to allow member schools to make their own decisions on alcohol sales in 2019. Kentucky was one of the last five league schools that did not allow sales in general seating areas until the trial run at KPP.
"We paid attention to other experiences other schools were going through, did our research with organizations about the effect it would have on crowds and safety, all of those pieces," Barnhart said. "... And then we watched the experience at KPP to see how that was managed, and our fans were awesome. They were great."
No plans for "alcohol-free" or so-called "family" seating areas have been made at this time, Barnhart added.
