UPDATE: No reports surfaced of beer at Tuesday's games, but sources say "Texas delayed launch to Wednesday night's game."
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If you’ve ever craved a cold one during a University of Texas sporting event, you've been out of luck. But could the culture of imbibing during UT games be undergoing a revolutionary shift? Rumors are brewing that the head honchos of University of Texas Athletics are introducing alcohol sales during games, possibly starting as early as Tuesday evening.
Chip Brown, columnist at Orangebloods.com, reported Tuesday morning that anonymous sources close to the administration say beer will be available for purchase at the Texas women’s basketball game against the TCU Horned Frogs at the Frank Erwin Center, which starts Tuesday at 7:30 pm.
Rumors are brewing that the head honchos of University of Texas Athletics are introducing alcohol sales during games, possibly starting as early as Tuesday evening.
Earlier reports also suggested beer would be available at Disch-Falk Field when Texas plays against UT-Pan American on Tuesday afternoon. "But the most recent word we received is that the debut of beer sales at UT athletic events will happen tonight at the women's hoops game — not baseball," Brown writes in the story.
The University of Texas and the athletics department are keeping their cards close to the vest regarding beer sales. CultureMap's requests for comment from the UT Athletics communications office and the offices of the general manager of Sodexo, the official catering company for UT athletics, have gone unfulfilled.
However, a CultureMap source with close ties to the basketball and baseball programs could not confirm nor deny the rumors, saying only, "It’s Miller time." Our source suggests sources are not releasing an official announcement, "to make sure the logistics of it are all done first, so they don't to apologize for not having it if they don't have the personnel/coolers/etc. in place to make it work today."
According to Brown's article, if the Tuesday debut actually happens, sales of alcohol will also be available on Wednesday at the Texas men’s basketball game against Baylor.
The Orangebloods.com report also quotes the source as calling the spring games a "testing of the water" for the much grander possibility of serving beer during UT football games this fall. If the go-ahead is given, UT would join only two other Big 12 schools to allow alcohol sales during games — West Virginia University and Iowa State.
Alcohol has been available at the Frank Erwin Center during non-UT sporting events, but the topic of adding alcohol sales to games was also discussed with former UT athletics director DeLoss Dodds, according to The Daily Texan. With the new regime change under athletic director Steve Patterson, it appears that beer is back on the fast track.
Steve Patterson’s first major move was to bring Charlie Strong in as the new head football coach, but could beer at the ball game be his lasting legacy?
Rumors are swirling that beer sales are heading to UT sporting events.
