In a widely speculated move, IU Athletics will begin beer sales to the general public inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall this year for men’s and women’s basketball.
Zach Osterman of the Indianapolis Star was the first to report the news. IU Athletics later confirmed the news in a release.
Director of Athletics Scott Dolson hinted in late August the change was forthcoming.
“I am a big proponent of making certain that we’re keeping up with what our fans would like to see from a fan experience standpoint,” Dolson said.
IU introduced beer sales at football games in 2019, and have since expanded sales to men’s and women’s soccer, baseball and softball.
While there have been concerns within the department when it comes to introducing alcohol to an already hostile indoor environment, data gathered by IU has been encouraging.
“I’ll say that it has gone extremely well to date,” Dolson said. “Data really shows from the time we implemented it the first year at Memorial Stadium that our incidents actually went down, our alcohol-related incidents, and I think controlling the environment has proved to be successful.”
Beer will begin flowing inside Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 7.
IU currently has beer sponsorship agreements with both global conglomerate Molson Coors, and Upland, a local brewery.
The full release from IU is below.
——————–
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana – Fans over 21 attending Hoosier men’s and women’s basketball games and select events at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall can now enjoy beer to enhance their experience.
The addition of beer sales at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall is in line with past decisions to introduce beer sales at IU Football, Baseball, Softball and Men’s and Women’s Soccer. Beer was first offered at IU Football home games in 2019, at IU Baseball and Softball last spring, and at Men’s and Women’s Soccer this fall.
This new Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall concession option will debut at Hoosier Hysteria Oct. 7.
“We continue to receive very positive feedback about our decision to introduce this option at a number of our other home sporting events, which makes this decision a logical next step in our ongoing efforts to improve the experience for our passionate Hoosier fans,” said IU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson. “As we have done at our other venues, we will be diligent about promoting, encouraging, and supporting responsible behavior at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, beginning with Hoosier Hysteria.”
Encouraging responsible fan behavior and promoting alcohol safety continues to be a top priority for IU Athletics. Every purchaser (who appears to be younger than 50) is required to present a valid, government-issued photographic identification documenting that he or she is 21 for every purchase of beer. Purchasers are limited to two drinks per transaction, and beer sales end with 10 minutes remaining in the second half of men’s games, and at the end of the third quarter for women’s contests. No beer will be sold to a visibly intoxicated person. All servers have a current alcohol servers permit issued by the state of Indiana and have gone through and passed TEAM responsible alcohol service training.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Facebook: thedailyhoosier
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
