Beer and football don’t mix

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 6, 2009

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There were no beer sales after all on Saturday inside Cajun Stadium for the sold-out football game between Southern University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

ULL officials said the school’s concessions contractor, Sodexo Sports & Leisure, decided against the planned precedent-setting sales after the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control raised questions about them on Friday afternoon.

Daryl Cetnar, ULL’s sports information director, said Saturday that he did not know what those questions were.

“I’ll let you speculate why this came up on Friday afternoon,” Cetnar said. “I won’t do it.”

Efforts to reach ATC officials in Lafayette and Baton Rouge were unsuccessful.

“ATC had approved them (Sodexo) to sell,” Cetnar said. “Then, late Friday afternoon, they (ATC) said they had some questions.”

The main number at ULL’s athletic department Saturday was answered by a recording, which said the 38,000-seat stadium was sold out for the first-ever game between the Ragin’ Cajuns and Jaguars.

ULL would have become the first public university in the state to sell beer at football games. The brew is sold at home games of a private school in New Orleans, Tulane University.

Under its contract with Sodexo, ULL would have received 45 percent of the profits from beer sales.

Cetnar emphasized, however, that ULL neither asked Sodexo to begin beer sales nor pulled the plug on the plan as a result of the ATC’s intervention.

“This is not a university decision,” Cetnar said. “This has nothing to do with the university.”

Beer is sold at games of ULL’s basketball and baseball teams. For football games, fans are permitted to bring alcohol to private boxes, ULL President Joseph Savoie said last week. And people are permitted to consume alcohol at tailgate parties outside the stadium.