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Fansided

Defending Mitch Barnhart decision to ban alcohol in 2019-20

By Alex Weber

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: Mitch Barnhart, director of athletics at University of Kentucky, listens as the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: Mitch Barnhart, director of athletics at University of Kentucky, listens as the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /
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LEXINGTON, KY – OCTOBER 20: Terry Wilson #3 of the Kentucky Wildcats runs with the ball against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Commonwealth Stadium on October 20, 2018 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Switching gears, the main reason Mitch Barnhart himself gave regarding the decision is that he wants to retain the family environment of games. I’m sure the safeties I just mentioned are a part of that. But he specifically refers to the 55,000 fans in the stands. (He omits those in club sections, which I’ll touch on in a minute).

Those fans, often accompanied by their families, he feels, would be less comfortable in a stadium with alcohol sales. (I’m not sure the consensus of people who do bring their families would agree but I don’t have research on the subject). This is not something I particularly think is very important to fans but I see his point. I’m sure many of you reading this have been to a professional sporting event or another college venue that does sell alcohol. I’ll bet there was an annoying drunk person in your section. Yep, I knew it.

The drunk moron isn’t a brand new archetype. They live among us, coming out like werewolves with the moon when the alcohol begins sliding down their gullets. Heck, everyone has probably said or done something while drunk that’s so stupid you’d hate to admit it (or simply won’t). But at a sports game, where you have no control over who sits near you, people like that can completely ruin an experience, especially if the aggregator cheers for the opposing team.

During the NFL season, fights within the stands break out weekly and are generally alcohol-induced. Luckily, the NFL doesn’t record a voluminous child attendance. But colleges do. And like I mentioned earlier, there are a couple thousand 18-22 year-olds shoved together in one endzone at Kentucky. Add in a not-so-stellar performance from the Cats and rampant intoxication, and fights are breaking out. Students are idiots! I’m one of them! We shouldn’t be given alcohol! It would be a disaster!

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