Less than a week after Vanderbilt and Tennessee announced they would be selling alcohol in multiple concourse areas of their respective football stadiums this season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has not announced any changes in policy.
Since the 2016 season, UTC has offered general public alcohol sales at Finley Stadium's West Plaza that overlooks the field and is directly across the street from the First Tennessee Pavilion. The Mocs open their 2019 season next Thursday night against visiting Eastern Illinois.
"There is no change yet," UTC senior associate athletic director JAy Blackman said Tuesday afternoon. "We're constantly evaluating the situation, but as of right now we do not have any plans to adjust the way we already do it."
Tennessee last Friday became the sixth Southeastern Conference institution to announce alcohol sales in general public areas of their football venues, joining Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Tennessee also joined Memphis, Middle Tennessee State and Vandy as schools within the Volunteer State that will have alcohol widely available at football games.
Gordon Davenport Field at Finley Stadium is seen during a steady rain on Monday, Aug. 17, 2015, in Chattanooga, TennFinley Stadium executive director Chris Thomas said after Tuesday's meeting of Stadium Corp. board members that alcohol at the West Plaza accounted for 35% of all concession sales at UTC home games last season.
"To me, it shows that the fans of sports want to have a cold beer while they're watching a game," Thomas said. "The CFC's percentage of sales as far as beer is 70 to 80%. It would be logical to assume that if we had beer sales during other sporting events, that number would grow."
Providing additional Finley Stadium alcohol sales locations would not be possible for the Eastern Illinois opener, Thomas said, but implementing them at some point during UTC's six-game home schedule is entirely feasible.
"We require a couple of weeks' notice," Thomas said. "We're prepared to turn it on, but we need two to four weeks' notice before we could activate beer sales for any sporting event. We have not received that notice yet from UTC.
"It is and always has been in the hands of (UTC chancellor) Dr. (Steven) Angle, and he'll make his measured decision and let us know if it's this year, next year or the year after that."
» Thomas said during Tuesday's Stadium Corp. gathering, which was the first with Mike Davis as board chairman, that nearly 10,000 fans attended the 20th annual Best of Preps high school football jamboree this past weekend.
"It was a big success and the biggest event we've had in the last two years," Thomas said.
» Finley Stadium officials previously had announced that new turf would be coming after this UTC football season and after the Chattanooga Football Club soccer team finishes its Members Cup schedule. Thomas said the window for the installation will be from Dec. 15 to Feb. 28.
"I expect that it will be at the front end of that window," Thomas said.
» Chattanooga FC recently announced that it will compete next year as a professional team in the National Independent Soccer Association. CFC chairman Tim Kelly said Tuesday that Chattanooga likely will be the smallest market in the NISA, which contains teams from Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Diego.
Kelly added that the CFC should know its 2020 schedule by the end of November.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.