ATHENS — After being one of the final holdouts in the SEC, Georgia will open beer sales to all fans at home football games in 2024.
Athletic director Josh Brooks announced the news at Wednesday’s meeting of the school’s athletic board. The move comes five years after the SEC lifted its ban on alcohol sales at conference events.
Georgia and Auburn were the final two SEC schools to not sell beer to the general public at football games. Auburn has not formally announced whether it will do so this fall but has been slowly moving in that direction, selling beer at basketball games in Nov. 2023, becoming the final SEC school to sell alcohol at athletic events.
Georgia has been on a slow march to full-fledged alcohol sales.
When the SEC lifted its ban in the summer of 2019, Georgia allowed alcohol to be brought to private suites and certain club areas. The school later allowed beer sales for men’s and women’s basketball games at Stegeman Coliseum, followed in 2022 by baseball and softball games.
Attendance and revenue are of course the two driving factors. College sports officials have known for several years they had to work harder to get fans who preferred the comfort of home or to just tailgate but not spend to go in the stadium. The recent signs are the efforts are working,…
