Wichita State alcohol sales quadrupled nearby peers at basketball games last season
When Wichita State sold its first beer at a basketball game in the fall of 2017, the Shockers were metaphorically dipping their toes into an unfamiliar body of water.
Three years later, they now feel so comfortable with their surroundings that they are jumping in cannonball-style.
Wichita State is coming off its most profitable (by far) men’s basketball season in terms of alcohol sales at Koch Arena, as Shockers fans spent $303,591 on beer, wine and mixed drinks at home games this past season. That number is up nearly $100,000 from Wichita State’s experimental first run selling alcoholic beverages in 2017-18. Much has changed since then.
In the beginning, the Shockers offered only four choices to fans: Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Shock Top and Corona. And none of them exceeded 3.2% alcohol by volume, meaning they were “watered down” like the beer Sunflower State residents used to buy in grocery stores. Now, Wichita State fans can choose between 20 different drink options, including full-strength beers, margaritas, wine and mixed drinks.
They appear to be a hit.
Wichita State fans proved to be much thirstier than some of their neighbors last season. Wichita State’s gross sales more than quadrupled the amount that Kansas State ($67,866) totaled and more than tripled the amount that Missouri ($79,803) totaled while debuting beer and wine at basketball games this year. Kansas doesn’t provide alcohol sales at Allen Fieldhouse, but the Jayhawks did amass $497,316 in gross sales of beer and wine at football games last fall.
Why were alcohol sales more lucrative at Wichita State? There are several answers. But let’s start with this: The Shockers were first to arrive at the party.
“We all live in a world of, I don’t want to say copy cats, but we see trends that go on and now they are doing what we did, except they were a little bit behind our curve,” said Brad Pittman, Wichita State’s senior associate athletic director of facilities and operations. “They also have revenue streams that we don’t have. Maybe they weren’t as aggressive because of that aspect.”
“I think in five to 10 years it’s going to be normal. You go to a college event and this is something you can do. I don’t know if I feel validated that we were first, but it makes me feel good that the choice we made was the right choice.”
The most popular alcoholic beverage at Wichita State basketball games last season was Michelob Ultra ($73,359). That beer barely edged out Bud Light ($70,832) and Shock Top ($58,482) in terms of sales. There was a hard dropoff from there to Goose Island IPA ($20,727) and then WuShock Wheat ($13.048). The least-popular beer option was Budweiser ($11,432).
Unlike at K-State and KU games, Wichita State fans were also able to purchase mixed drinks. Crown Royal ($10,230) was the most popular liquor option in that space, edging out Ketel One ($8,250) and Smirnoff ($7,400). The least-popular liquor choice was Dewars, which totaled just $560 in sales.
Margaritas were also a moderate hit with $7,371 in sales. All three wine options sold between $2,000 and $4,000. Truly Wild Berry brought in $2,034 as the only hard seltzer option.
Add it all up, and Wichita State cashed in on a relatively new beverage option that fans enjoyed. With beer sales involved, Pittman said the Shockers made around $60,000 off concession sales at their biggest home games. After totaling $220,504 in beer sales in 2017-18 and then $211,023 in 2018-19, the Shockers surged north of $300,000 this season.
“We live in a world now where state funding has been stagnant and ticket sales, as a trend across the country, is stagnant,” Pittman said. “Trying to find those new sources of revenue are important. Every little bit is important. It helps us maintain what we are trying to do. We are looking at that across the board, not just alcohol sales. What can we do to tap into new revenue streams that help our programs.”
As Wichita State’s alcohol sales have risen, Pittman is proud to say alcohol-related incidents inside Koch Arena have not. The Shockers were fearful that introducing beer at games would hurt the family environment fans are accustomed to, but it has actually reduced the number of intoxicated fans at games.
Pittman recalls several times before 2017 when Wichita State had to boot students from games because they had become visibly impaired. But that hasn’t been an issue the past three years, presumably because there is less binge-drinking elsewhere before opening tip inside a dry arena.
“It hasn’t had a negative impact,” Pittman said.
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One other factor that helped Wichita State’s sales this season was an abundance of home games. The Shockers played the majority of their games at Koch Arena last season, and at premium times.
While Kansas State played 16 home games, only six of them were weekend tips. Missouri hosted 15 games, and also only played six of them on the weekend. But Wichita State hosted 19 games. Without a football team to compete with on campus, 11 of those games fell on the weekend. Five others were played on Thursdays.
Those are prime days to sell a few extra beers.
K-State and Missouri played most of their home games on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which are difficult days for beer sales.
“We didn’t do too well in our first year either, but one thing I can tell you from experience is that game times matter,” Pittman said. “Thursday, Friday and Saturday are really good days to sell alcohol. Game times matter, too. Saturday at 6 is a lot better than Wednesday at 8. We notice that with our sales trends.”
Alcohol sales will continue to evolve at Wichita State, but it’s clear they are already in a good place. The Shockers made a big splash in Year 3.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 12:04 PM.