Along with all of the other blessings of university-sponsored alcohol sales at football games (extra police, obnoxious behavior, etc.), you’d think making a profit would be a no-brainer. You charge thirsty idiots immense sums for camels’ piss — What could go wrong?
The University of Minnesota fought so hard for the right to sell booze at its stadium… Its president lobbied and testified… UM students deserved alcohol…
And it won! But now… Where’d all the money go?
March 20th, 2013 at 10:44AM
The average Minnesotan is apparently an economic illiterate.
March 20th, 2013 at 11:17AM
Mr Punch: I think it’s not so much illiteracy as their wondering why this outcome involves their taxes.
March 22nd, 2013 at 12:41AM
Dave Tice writes a nice commentary in the Strib as a follow-up to a rather disturbing story. At an earlier session at the state legislature, the U claimed to have MADE $16 K on the beer sales. A freedom of information request by the AP led to a slight change – they LOST $16K. This was blamed on a spread-sheet error.
Here’s a link from the Tice piece: http://bit.ly/Z5yArG
Enjoy!
Sample:
The University of Minnesota managed this marvel last year at TCF Bank Stadium, according to a news report, dropping some $16,000 on more than $900,000 in beer and wine sales. Fortunately, research has unearthed the cause, according to the story. Their expenses grew larger than their revenues.
“Maybe we were overstaffed,” theorized one official.
It’s a possibility. Of late, the U has become something of a national symbol of overstaffing and overspending in higher education, following a Wall Street Journal story singling out our beloved flagship for what’s unappetizingly called “administrative bloat” — and after stories in this paper revealing, among other things, departing administrators enjoying lavishly paid leaves to “retool” themselves for a return to faculty jobs.