Michigan made nearly $2.3 million in the inaugural season of alcohol sales at Michigan Stadium last year and saw very little variance in fan ejections relating to alcohol intoxication or violations as compared to the previous season.

On May 16, 2024, the Michigan athletic department announced it would begin selling alcohol at Michigan Stadium, the nation’s largest stadium with a capacity of 107,601, during the eight home football games in 2024. The athletic department had alcohol-sale rollouts at the Crisler Center and Yost Ice Arena last February before the Board of Regents voted to implement a Class C liquor license at Michigan Stadium.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation in July 2023 that allowed for the sale of alcohol in college stadiums and arenas as a way to “curb binge drinking at college sporting events” by cutting down on excessive alcohol consumption while tailgating. Michigan State began selling alcohol at Spartan Stadium during the 2023 season.

“There were some blips here and there, but in general, I think it went fine,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told The Detroit News about the first year of alcohol sales at the stadium. “I think our fans and donors and people who came to the games really enjoyed having the option to buy beer, wine and seltzer beverages in the bowl in Michigan Stadium.”

In this new era of revenue sharing with athletes, creating new streams of income is critical to athletic departments, Michigan made $2,257,797.63 from alcohol sales during eight home games in 2024, according to data obtained by The Detroit News through an open-records request. Michigan received 51% of the net profits from stadium alcohol sales, while Sodexo, which provides food and service for all concessions, catering and premium dining for UM athletics facilities, received the rest. In terms of alcohol sales in the club and suite areas, Michigan received 30% of net alcohol sales.

The second home game of last season, featuring then-No. 3 Texas against then-No. 10 Michigan, was a highly anticipated national matchup, with ESPN’s College GameDay and Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff broadcasting their popular pre-game shows from Ann Arbor. It was also the most profitable for Michigan in terms of alcohol sales, as the athletic department made $455,193.65.

That was about $173,000 more than the average profit for each game, which was $282,224.70.

According to a survey by The Associated Press of Power 5 conference schools and Notre Dame in November 2023, 80% of athletic departments sold alcohol in the public areas of their stadiums on game days. The remaining 20% — of which Michigan was a part that year — sold alcoholic drinks in nonpublic areas like suites, while other schools did not sell alcohol at all.

Michigan Stadium implemented various rules for alcohol sales, which began one hour before kickoff and lasted until the start of the fourth quarter, and purchasers had to be 21 or older and provide identification. Wine, beer and seltzer — the latter two sold in cans not exceeding 16 ounces — were available for purchase, and an individual could buy a maximum of two alcoholic beverages at a time. Alcohol was not sold in the student section. Throughout the stadium, Michigan had alcohol compliance teams to encourage responsible consumption, oversee policy adherence throughout the venue and monitor behavior.

Allowing alcohol sales could lead to an increase in stadium ejections or arrests, but the difference in the number of incidents during the 2023 and ’24 seasons was negligible.

“Our enforcement stats did not show an increase due to alcohol sales,” said Melissa Overton, Deputy Chief of Police at the University of Michigan Police Department.

According to ejections and arrests data for the 2023 season — the last before alcohol sales at the stadium — Michigan Stadium hosted seven home games and had 129 ejections and four arrests. Of those, 24 ejections were for intoxication and 10 for stadium alcohol violations. During the eight-game 2024 season at Michigan Stadium, the first year of alcohol sales, there were 171 ejections and four arrests. Of those, 29 ejections were because of intoxication and 13 for alcohol violations. Ejections also involved disorderly conduct, fighting, violation of stadium rules and fake credentials.

“We measure everything down to how many cleanups of vomit we have,” Manuel told The News. “We’ve done that for a while, not just for this, so we can have a lot to compare. And we have people looking into it and looking into it across Michigan Stadium, Crisler and Yost, to really figure out on an annual basis, what do we see compared to and what does that say.”

The University of Iowa began selling alcohol at Kinnick Stadium in 2021, and according to a report in the Iowa City Gazette last October, Iowa had a revenue of $3.2 million from alcohol sold in 2023, an increase of 29% from ’22. Also in 2023, a medical research paper authored by six doctors, including Hans House from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Iowa, titled, “The Impact of Alcohol Sales in A College Football Stadium on Healthcare Utilization,” concluded there was no significant increase in the number of alcohol-related emergencies after the university they studied implemented alcohol sales.

Manuel said University of Michigan researchers are also looking into the effects of alcohol sales at Michigan Stadium, Yost and Crisler, on a number of topics and hope to have the report available this summer.

“It would be public information to share, and we want it to be that way,” Manuel said. “We want people to know and get a sense of what effect does it have, and how did it compare. We still, to this day, see little airplane bottles of alcohol around, and so it is just one of those things where we will continue to monitor. But it’s been, I think, fairly successful and our fans have really enjoyed having the option.”