SPECIAL REPORT: Get your beer here

Colleges and athletic programs across the nation are facing budget shortfalls like never before.

In an effort to make up for some of that lost revenues, some schools have decided to sell beer in the stadium at their home football games.

Louisiana-Lafayette, Akron and Maryland are schools that now sell beer at their home games.

Is it an option at East Carolina?

Eyewitness News 9 Sports Director Brian Bailey went to find out.

Tailgating is as much a part of college football as the coaches and the players. Beer is a big part of the tailgate party, but so far beer stays outside the stadium at East Carolina. ECU Director of Athletics Terry Holland says it's a moot point right now.

"Selling beer is always a concern for any college campus. We are in the State System, so until the state of North Carolina decides they're going to allow beer to be sold on the campus of the public institutions it will not happen, certainly not at an athletic venue," says Terry Holland, ECU Athletics Director.

Everybody loves a good tailgate party, especially here at East Carolina, but should that party move indoors at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium?

ECU fan Craig Glisson says, “Honestly, yes. It's an easy way to make a lot of money and on top of that if you tax it even more in the stadium, that's more revenue for the school. But you don't want to have rowdy fans, but the fans are already rowdy so why not?"

Austin Ramsey, another ECU fan take a different point of view, “Honestly no, because people like me will take abuse to it."

ECU fan Tommy Askew agrees, “Obviously not, I don't think so. You should be out here and having a good time but when you get in the stadium you should be in control. Everybody remains calm and enjoy the game.”

Ann Cooper, another ECU fan, says, "They need to sell beer. I mean that's what they do in Charlotte. The Panthers, pro football games, why not college?"

Holland says things could change in the future and public institutions could be allowed to sell beer in on campus stadiums. If that ever happens, the decision to sell beer at games would be a difficult one.

"It would be a tough one. You'd have to talk to your Board of Trustees as well as your Chancellor and everyone would have to want to feel comfortable with it. Different people look at it differently. Davidson, way back, had a president who went after money from a distillery. As a Presbyterian school the Board said, 'well that money is tainted, isn't it?' He said, 'No, the only thing tainted about it is there 'taint' enough of it. So it depends on how you look at it, says Holland.

As for the possibility that someday the North Carolina system might give schools the option to sell beer at their stadiums, Holland says it's a long shot at best, "We're not that far from having dry counties in the state of North Carolina. I remember back in the old days, the "unholy alliance" of the bootleggers and Baptist ministers kept liquor out of each county for a long time and kept liquor by the drink out of places for a long, long, time."

He goes on to say, “Things could change, but I don't see us selling beer in the stands in the near future."

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