MORGANTOWN - Even before the sale of beer is approved at Mountaineer Field, Oliver Luck is looking for places to ban it.
"We can try to do it this year,'' Luck said. "I'm not sure if it would be a hard and fast rule, but we could say that in sections whatever, beer consumption is discouraged from those sections. They're family sections.
"I'm not sure we could ban beer, but we'd sort of discourage beer from those sections.''
Wells said the school has not made any decisions about where those family sections might be or even how the issue will be approached, but when the proposal came it went straight to his front burner.
"Right now we're just in the process of studying our options,'' Wells said. "There might be two, three, four, five different ways to do it, but we don't want to impact fans in terms of their seating location if we don't have to. The fans will have to be involved.''
Other pro and college stadiums around the country offer similar family-friendly sections. One cited by Luck was Louisville, which offers no-alcohol sections at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, where not only beer but also liquor is sold.
The majority of those family seat locations at Louisville are located in the upper deck behind the end zone, although there is also a no-alcohol section in the lower-level seats on the visitors' side of the field.
"Louisville, I think, does a very good job of setting aside a family area where there is no alcohol consumption,'' Luck said. "According to the Louisville folks that's very popular. We'd love to do the same thing.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
MORGANTOWN - Even before the sale of beer is approved at Mountaineer Field, Oliver Luck is looking for places to ban it.
Not overall, of course. After all, it was Luck's idea to propose beer sales at the stadium.
But he would like to discourage consumption in certain areas.
"We're looking at the possibility of having a family-only or a number of family-only sections,'' the West Virginia athletic director said. "We're trying to figure out, in terms of ticket logistics, how we could do that.''
It won't be easy, at least not right away. The sale of season tickets is already underway and 2010 ticket-holders have the right until May 13 to reserve their same seats. Given that those ticket locations are spread throughout the stadium, it would be difficult to retroactively ban beer in any given location.
But West Virginia officials are working on ideas.
"The safe way to explain it is that it's being explored,'' said WVU sports marketing director Matt Wells. "But the logistics of forming non-alcohol sections within the existing seating structure is difficult.''
The issue, of course, might be moot because the sale of beer at Mountaineer Field has not yet been approved. The question is before the school's Board of Governors, which is in a public comment phase now and is expected to render a verdict in June.
But if beer sales are approved, Luck would like to be ready to designate some areas as non-drinking. That might be more easily accomplished in future seasons when ticketing policies can be altered, but in some fashion he wants to attempt it right away.
"We can try to do it this year,'' Luck said. "I'm not sure if it would be a hard and fast rule, but we could say that in sections whatever, beer consumption is discouraged from those sections. They're family sections.
"I'm not sure we could ban beer, but we'd sort of discourage beer from those sections.''
Wells said the school has not made any decisions about where those family sections might be or even how the issue will be approached, but when the proposal came it went straight to his front burner.
"Right now we're just in the process of studying our options,'' Wells said. "There might be two, three, four, five different ways to do it, but we don't want to impact fans in terms of their seating location if we don't have to. The fans will have to be involved.''
Other pro and college stadiums around the country offer similar family-friendly sections. One cited by Luck was Louisville, which offers no-alcohol sections at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, where not only beer but also liquor is sold.
The majority of those family seat locations at Louisville are located in the upper deck behind the end zone, although there is also a no-alcohol section in the lower-level seats on the visitors' side of the field.
"Louisville, I think, does a very good job of setting aside a family area where there is no alcohol consumption,'' Luck said. "According to the Louisville folks that's very popular. We'd love to do the same thing.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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