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Alabama Not Happy With Tuscaloosa’s New Alcohol Policy
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
According to The Spun, Alabama athletics announced Monday it “will not be moving forward with alcohol sales at this time” thanks to a new service fee approved by the Tuscaloosa City Council last week. During a meeting on February 8, the Tuscaloosa City Council okayed a public service fee for “ticketed events of at least 1,000” where alcohol is sold. The fee will be increased depending on capacity. Alcohol was scheduled to be available soon at Coleman Coliseum, but that plan has been suspended pending review of the new ordinance... According to a report from the Tuscaloosa News, the scale for the new service fee is as follows...
quote:

• $1 per ticket sold at any event with the capacity of 1,000 to 19,999 people;

• $2 per ticket sold at any event with a capacity of 20,000 to 49,999 people; and

• $3 per ticket sold at any even with the capacity of 50,000 people or greater.
(The Spun)

Filed Under: Alabama Sports

Comments

30 Comments
user avatar
Alabama has to pay for all officers working at the game anyway.
Reply15 months
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The extra money is to pay the city of Tuscaloosa police officers that would be required to work overtime in these events. The university has it's own police department, but it's not big enough to handle these large events. So they have to get city officers and pay them overtime. The city is refusing to pay the overtime for the university, especially if they have to keep sober families with their kids who don't drink safe from drunken jackholes. I have a friend who worked 4 graduations and a basketball game last Saturday. That was a 10 hour overtime shift.
Reply15 months
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None of what you said is reality.
15 months
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Seems illegal to charge every entrant $3 for alcohol sales when some do not even drink.
Reply15 months
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It's basically a contract entered into willingly between two parties. How is that illegal?
15 months
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@pele A contract? Between who? Neither the University nor the fan want it. If it is between the fan and the city, what consideration does the fan get? This is a tax and would not be voluntary.
15 months
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I would be willing to bet there is a contract between the city and the university when it comes to security for football games. One that likely allows the city to calculate the additional money needed to provide X amount of security based on Y amount of fans. They probably use an independent party to calculate the security needs. It also probably went up when they added that X percentage will be drinking. The fan also enters a contract when they buy a ticket based on whatever is on the back of it. They are not being compelled to do anything. It's a voluntary relationship. They do not need to go to the game. And the fan gets security at the games. That is their consideration. If the risk of bad behavior goes up by having alcohol, the cost goes up. And what do you consider a "voluntary" tax and do you really think that you need to "voluntarily" pay it for it to be legal? Taxes don't always need to be voted on. If there is statutory authority for a municipality to enact a service fee without a vote, they can enact it. If the voters want to take that statutory authority away, they may vote on a law or vote in representatives that will get rid of that authority.
15 months
user avatar
They should give the finger to the city and allow ticket buyers to bring alcohol into the stadium.
Reply15 months
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This is how the mob operates.
Reply15 months
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You know the government had already built this into their budget thinking it was a quick and easy cash grab. Now Byrne just sent them scrambling. As much as I hate Bama, I have to applaud Byrne for taking a stand. It's not much... right now. But $1-$3 per ticket very quickly becomes $10-$13 per ticket when the government needs more money. They aren't going to make cuts. With a bit of vomit in my mouth, I have to say big respect to Byrne for not kowtowing to those turds.
Reply15 months
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It always starts out small.
15 months
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States and municipalities have entertainment taxes and other similar taxes. This isn't unique and isn't a big deal. UA is cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Reply15 months
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At $3 a ticket in a sold out Bryant Denny Stadium, that's not chump change for a full stadium. That's a $2,401,848 tax for an eight game season for no good purpose except as a cash grab.
Reply15 months
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Damn impressive. Tuscaloosa trying there best to be Louisiana. This looks like some kind of scheme a Louisiana democrat would come up with.
15 months
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Hard to imaging government sticking its greedy hand out and expecting someone to reach in to their pocket and fill it.
Reply15 months
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Greg Byrne’s Twitter Cameo portrait looks like he’s a practicing ventriloquist. That would make his wife the dummy (for you RTRers).
Reply15 months
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Effing politickshuns, they gonna try & screw the pooch every time they think a $ is available to steal.
Reply15 months
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I’d rather just drink outside the stadium and walk in anyway. A fifth of JD is $25. That might buy 2 beers in BDS if they sold them. Hell, a water was $4 the last time I went.
Reply15 months
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You got a water for only $4?
15 months
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Drinking’s trashy
Reply15 months
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Coleman won't hold more than 20k, so it's a buck. Big deal. It's not like the money is coming out of the Athletic Dept's pocket. I'd be willing to bet that the ticket buyers wouldn't care about the $1 if it afforded them the opportunity to purchase a beer during the game.
Reply15 months
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The problem is that they wouldn't simply raise the ticket prices by $1. The tax applies to every ticket even if its sold to a teatotaler or a child. The University losing $10,000 every home game is a pretty drastic shift in the bottom line. So they'll compensate by taking it out on the consumer
15 months
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Glorious - That is like complaining that you have to pay for security when you are an upstanding citizen that follows the law, arrives and leaves the facility in an orderly manner and always behaves. But you need to pay for the security because of other people who are not like you. That's life.
15 months
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So the REC can rig the officiating in the Super Bowl against the LSU Bengals but they can't force the local Tuscaloosa government to bend the knee?!
Reply15 months
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Boo-frickety-hoo. They will just continue to sneak in their Evan Williams. The classy bammers will sneak in their Jimmy Beam
Reply15 months
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greedy government, they want their hand in the university's pocket. Sadly, that's no surprise.
Reply15 months
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Should spend less money on buying players and more money on buying the city Council.
Reply15 months
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Better than paying mediocre coaches’ buyouts and toilet paper
15 months
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paying for*
15 months
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