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Athens Banner-Herald
Decision made on alcohol sales for Georgia football games in 2024 in Sanford Stadium
- Story byAthens Banner-Herald
- Decision made on alcohol sales for Georgia football games in 2024 in Sanford Stadium
Alcohol sales for the general public are coming to Sanford Stadium for the 2024 Georgia football season.
It's a move that some fans have been long waiting for as other football stadiums in the SEC have already been selling beer in their venues.
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Athletic director Josh Brooks unveiled the change Wednesday afternoon to the Georgia Athletic Association board of directors at its winter meeting at the Georgia Center.
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Alcohol was already available in premium areas of the 92,746 seat stadium.
Now beer and seltzer will be available for purchase to any fan of drinking age for a home schedule with six games in 2024. Brooks said the SEC deregulated what could alcohol be sold at games, but Georgia won't expand its offerings.
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Georgia and Auburn were the two remaining holdouts of selling alcohol among what will be a 16-team league this fall.
Auburn will also start alcohol sales in 2024, according to AL.com
Georgia already sold beer for men's and women's basketball games at Stegeman Coliseum since the 2021-2022 season and rolled out sales as well in baseball's Foley Field, softball's Jack Turner Stadium in 2022 and the Dan Magill Tennis Complex for men's and women's matches in 2023.
"We wanted to be methodical about it, we wanted to take our time to do it right," Brooks said after the meeting. "It wasn't a race to just do something without proper preparation. By having a couple of years to sell it at Stegeman and do it at baseball last year, we were able to work through some of the logistical challenges of it and be better prepared."
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Beer will be sold in Sanford Stadium with a focus on it not impacting the current concession operations.
"If you have to walk a little further to get to it, no big deal," Brooks said.
Alcohol sales will also begin next season at Georgia soccer and volleyball games.
Georgia's official sponsors include Dos Equis, Twisted Tea, Creature Comforts with other offerings including Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite. Domestic beer has gone for $8 and craft and premium beer for $9.
"As we've talked about concessions being family friendly and trying to take care of a family of four or five coming to a game, this isn't something that I feel that price or making it cheap is important," Brooks said. "This is a luxury item, not a necessity item. It's not something that we value price. It will be fair and in line with most of our peers."
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Alcohol sales in general seating will begin as Georgia completes the second phase of a $68.5 million renovation of Sanford Stadium that eased congestion in concourses and added more concessions.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia football alcohol sales get green light for 2024 season
