Beer and football: it’s a tradition as old as time.
Up until this season, alcohol sales were prohibited at all Clemson home games — including football. Clemson recently joined Nebraska and Notre Dame in allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages in its football stadium for the 2025 season.
In 2023, 80% of Power Five teams sold alcohol at their stadium, and that number has continued to climb. Many fans were hesitant to accept the new changes, but in the NIL era, every dollar counts. Numerous other teams, including Georgia, also recently began selling alcohol in 2024. Some teams have received complaints about the change to the stadium environment.
Before the announcement back in April, in which the University revealed its intention, Clemson remained one of only three Power Four schools that allowed neither advertising nor the sale of alcoholic beverages. Clemson was the only school in the ACC, SEC or Big Ten — widely considered the top three conferences in the country — to prohibit alcohol sales. Utah and BYU were the other two teams that held the restriction.
Despite the new rules, head coach Dabo Swinney was quick to point out that beverages being brought into the stadium was nothing new, particularly after halftime, when many fans would leave the stadium and return once the game started again in the third quarter.
“It’s probably the first time they’re selling it, but it ain’t the first time they’ve been there. I promise you,” Swinney said. “I’m sure they ain’t all bringing Diet Coke back in.”
In Clemson’s opening game on Aug. 30, new booths filled with beers and seltzers were very popular among fans. Domestic beers sold for $9 a piece while seltzers sold for $11, with each fan allowed two drinks per transaction.
In the matchup against LSU alone, Clemson grossed $467,843 in revenue on 45,045 units sold, a staggering number to some thirsty fans. Inevitably, the environment of the game showed it.
At 12 ounces a drink, that is over 4,200 gallons of alcohol.
Many fans have clearly enjoyed the new sales, merely based on its overall success, but many are worried the environment of Death Valley will not be the same. Regardless, it’s difficult for Clemson fans to be disappointed with half a million dollars going to their favorite team every home football game.
