Football, basketball or baseball? These fans buy the most alcohol at Tennessee Vols games
Just three years into alcohol sales at sporting events, University of Tennessee records show it generated more than $3.6 million in alcohol sales in the 2021-22 school year, driven by big gains at football and baseball games.
Not surprisingly, football games accounted for three-quarters of sales, or $2.67 million. There were eight home football games at Neyland Stadium in 2021. On a per game basis, alcohol sales were up 60% from 2019, the first year alcohol sales were allowed.
Men's basketball games were second with $529,708 in alcohol sales in 16 home games at Thompson-Bowling Arena.
Cracking the top three were baseball games, driven in part by huge interest in the No. 1 Vols squad, which recorded the highest season attendance in program history. There was $360,929 in alcohol sales during 37 regular-season home games at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Lady Vols basketball generated $46,770 in alcohol sales in 18 home games.
The athletics department provided the figures to Knox News in response to a public records request submitted before the Vols played three NCAA regional games at home last weekend. Alcohol sales for regional games are not yet available.
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UT will play Notre Dame on Friday (6 p.m. ET, ESPN2) to open a best-of-three super regional at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Which fans bought the most alcohol?
Football fans also account for the highest amount of alcohol purchased per patron. Neyland Stadium drew 691,088 in attendance, and 230,338 alcoholic drinks were sold. That’s about one drink for every three patrons over the entire season.
UT baseball drew 154,818 in home attendance in the regular season, more than doubling its previous record of 64,107 in 1997. Fans bought 42,767 alcoholic drinks, or one drink per 3.6 patrons.
At Thompson-Boling Arena, 40,078 alcoholic drinks were sold with an attendance of 291,236 for men’s basketball fans but only 3,528 drinks sold with an attendance of 134,587 for Lady Vols basketball games.
That’s one drink sold for every 7.3 patrons at men’s basketball games and one drink sold for every 38 patrons at Lady Vols games.
Other factors must be considered. There's no way to measure how much alcohol was sold to fans of visiting teams, and the average age of fans in attendance is not known.
Also, there's a difference in the size of drinks. Most sold at baseball games were 16 ounces, while mostly 24-ounce drinks were sold at football and basketball games.
Reach Adam Sparks at adam.sparks@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee Vols fans alcohol sales: Football, basketball, baseball
