….I completely disagree with the policy that the U is going to have at TCF. However, there will be tailgating allowed, with alcohol.

Isn’t the rationale that this is a way to pacify the people who have paid tens of thousands of dollars for their box and club seats, and also to keep in place what I believe is the University’s “no booze on campus” rule? While this technically breaks the rule, I think this is their way of keeping high-buck donors happy in a very competitive sports market, while also trying to stop underage boozing.

I would have no problem with no booze in the stadium. But, either ban everyone or no-one (feels like targeted, discriminatory lawmaking to me). In any event, I prefer boozing in the tailgate. There is no booze in other stadiums (surprise, surprise, in the Big House for example). Just schweel before the games and bring in a flask.

Another explanation? Maybe the janitors who clean up the stadium have a very powerful lobbying influence at the U, and there are studies out there that younger adults make bigger alcohol-based messes at games.

Or, maybe this is a concession since the high-paid donors have been able to drink at Metrodump for the past 27 years.

Or, since they know Wisconsin and Iowa will play games at the Vault every other year, this is a pre-emptive ruling to make sure that the 55455 zip code doesn’t run out of beer on those Saturdays.

the irony of the argument, though, is that the rich AREN’T getting more. Buying one of those loge suites costs $15,000 for four seats. On the other hand, I paid $1,500 for my four seats.

However, the people in the suites and my group are watching the same product. So, they are paying a $10,000 premium. I highly doubt their beers are worth $10,000 over the course of a season. So, they are really paying an incredible premium for the amenities they are getting (a roof, a TV, and beer), as opposed to me, who will bring a coverall if needed, a raincoat, will listen on my earphones, and will drink outside the stadium. Rukavina is an idiot to criticize the fans who are paying the premium dollars that, without them, would have this state’s premier educational institution in an even greater financial pickle.

Alcohol in the boxes only makes sense. Case in point:

1) You can get alcohol in The Barn. In the suites seats only. And it has been that way for years. TCF is doing nothing different than the already established norm.

2) You can get alcohol in the suites only at every other (save Michigan) Bog Ten, and possibly college football stadium. The U of M is doing only what everybpody else does.

3) Why does everybody else do it this way? Because the suites aren’t being bought and purchased by 40 Pohlad families – they’re bought by companies who use them for advertising and entertaining clients, and maybe treating employees. I have been in the suites in Xcel, the Dome (for Twins, Vikings, and Final Four) and the Barn, and each time it was as a perk or gift offered to a friend who had their company or their vendor give them the tickets. If you can’t entertain clients in these suites, they will go unsold, and the “Average Joe” ticket prices go up.

Deal with it. I am an average Joe, and I can only afford to pay for average Joe seats. And the expensive tickets are so damn expensive, that only companies can afford them (and write them off as advertising). That’s the way the world works. It’s not a class issue. Quit trying to turn this into a class issue, when it clearly is not, and when the precedent set everywhere in America, and at the U, clearly shows that it has nothing to do with “sticking it” to the little guys.

You got spoiled for twenty years of off campus football at the Dome where they could get away with serving alcohol. Now you’re getting football the way it should be done: tailgating at 6 am in cold November, drinking until you can’t feel your nose anymore (not sure if it’s from liquor or frostbite), and then sobering up while at the game (or smuggling in a flask). That is real Big Ten football, and you all will learn to love it.

Suites that serve liquor are for lazy pu$$ies that don’t know jow to tailgate in the grandest of Big Ten traditions.

People whine about “My Tax Dollars” then when they keep their pockets stuffed they whine about the U or the Twins or anybody else that charges for everything. Listen up. Thats what you wished for when anyone who reads this is down on public financing. Its hard enough to break even with the small sports on the take, but then to listen to so called “fans”, half of whom never even went to the U makes me ill.

Its a pretty well proven fact that alcohol at college events is rare or limited all across the country. Thats why you don’t see Budweiser sponsoring teams like Nike or UA. The NCAA has rules on that sort of thing.

What I am ticked about is being an alumnus of a Fraternity on University ave. The school is trying to make all of the frats dry on game days….No more going back for homecoming and hanging with friends and family and enjoying an adult beverage as the parade goes by. What a joke. That will kill my alumnus pride and certainly close my wallet when they come calling for money.