Alcohol to be sold at Mountaineer Field?

OK, stop the presses, I didn’t see this one coming either.

Apparently, Oliver Luck feels like we should stop smoking in the stadium, STOP LEAVING AT HALFTIME, and start boozing it up DURING the game.

"“We recently completed a thorough review of all aspects of our operation at the stadium and believe three changes are appropriate,” said Athletic Director Oliver Luck in a written statement to wvmetronews.com.The other two changes would be to stop the practice of allowing fans that leave the stadium to re-enter and the creation of smoking areas outside of the concourses, totally removing smoking inside the stadium.“First of all, we took a very close look at the stadium re-entry practice which currently permits, except for night games, to leave the stadium and re-enter after halftime. The recommendation is to standardize the procedure and not permit re-entry at any time. Very few stadiums across the country, and none in the Big East, allow the practice of re-entry. We believe that this will help eliminate the abuse of alcohol in the parking lots at halftime and improve fan behavior,” Luck said.“Secondly, smoking is not permitted in the seating areas, aisles or restrooms and we plan to extend that to the concourses to provide a better environment for our fans. We will establish smoking areas outside of the concourses and totally remove smoking inside the facility,” the statement continued.“And finally, we believe we can improve fan behavior with the controlled sale of beer inside the stadium, which would require BOG approval,” said Luck’s statement. “With responsible serving practices and proper vendor training coupled with the elimination of stadium re-entry, we can control the consumption of alcohol. Many college stadiums, including all of our counterparts in the Big East Conference, are selling beer in some capacity. We would have a management plan in place to govern the sales, promote responsible drinking, control alcohol consumption and provide a safer environment at the stadium. We also anticipate a financial benefit, which would help our self sustaining athletic department.”The first two changes can be implemented immediately, but the third—the sale of beer inside the stadium—requires WVU BOG approval. During Friday’s Board of Governors meeting at Potomac State College of WVU in Keyser BOG Chair Carolyn Long announced the request to amend BOG Policy 18 (Section 4.1) to permit controlled beer sales at certain athletic events. Details of the proposed policy will be available on the board’s website (bog.wvu.edu) sometime next week for a 30-day comment period."

I’m in favor of all this. I’ll admit it, I’m one of Oliver Luck’s biggest cheerleaders and think he’s doing great things with the WVU Athletic Department, and for him, the sky’s the limit.

Frankly, the only complaint I can glean from allowing beer sales at the stadium is this: The lines for the bathroom are already long enough