Minnesota Tackles Stadium Rowdy Fans With Breath Tests
MINNEAPOLIS — Students who get kicked out of a University of Minnesota football game for drunken rowdiness won’t be allowed back next time unless they pass an alcohol breath test at the gate — one of the most extreme attempts yet by colleges to curb misbehavior in the stands.
The new Check BAC policy applies to the 10,000 student season-ticket holders and is modeled after a program started five years ago at the University of Wisconsin.
Nine people were ejected during the first game, and one drunken fan was taken from a tailgating lot to detox. Seven of those 10 were students who must now pass a breath test to attend future games. The number of students kicked out Saturday was about the same as usual, the university police department said.
Student season-ticket holders who get ejected from one game and want to attend another must go through a special gate where a breath test is administered. If they enter through a regular gate, they will get caught afterward when officials compare the database of used tickets to that of Check BAC students. (BAC stands for blood-alcohol content.)
Students under the drinking age of 21 must test completely clean to enter the stadium. Students 21 or older have to be below 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
The decision to go dry at the new stadium is expected to cost the university about $1 million this year in lost revenue from the sale of suites and other premium seats, along with other costs, officials said.
Wisconsin officials said the “Show and Blow” program has improved the atmosphere at Camp Randall Stadium, which is also dry.
“The students who are coming sober are having a better time,” Cox said. A total of 135 Wisconsin students ran afoul of the policy last year.
About 1,700 students die in alcohol-related accidents every year, and nearly 600,000 are injured, according to the National Institutes of Health. Student sports fans are much more likely to binge drink than nonfans, said Toben Nelson, a University of Minnesota professor who has researched college drinking for more than a decade.
Universities have tried all sorts of strategies for curbing drunkenness. Some have banned the sale of alcohol at their stadiums and put security guards at gates to make sure fans don’t bring in their own. Some, like Minnesota, have corralled tailgaters into parking lots patrolled by police.
Associated Press sports writer Dave Campbell contributed to this report.
All of this going on, when in the national news CBS announces that College Aged Binge Drinking is at an all time low.
Do you think that we should breath test fans?
