Texas Tech football: Selling alcohol means no more excuses for fans

Now that alcohol will be sold at Texas Tech football games, Red Raider fans have no more excuses for failing to show up or for leaving at halftime.

Kirby Hocutt may not have given Texas Tech football fans the head coach they wanted last month but Thursday, he helped give them something that most were even more loudly clambering for; the ability to purchase alcohol at Jones Stadium.  In doing so, Hocutt is eliminating one of the top reasons most fans gave for their declining interest in attending home games.

The Texas Tech Board of Regents’ vote to authorize beer and wine sales at all sporting events comes after a 2018 season that saw virtually every home game finish in front of a half-empty stadium.   This season, fans, especially the student body, departed en mass at halftime each week to go drink in the parking lot in an exodus that would make Moses himself take notice.

For the first nine decades of Texas Tech football, the lack of alcohol sales was not a deterrent to Red Raider fans as Jones Stadium became one of the toughest and most infamous environments in the nation.  Logically, it would not seem to make sense to argue that today’s fans are more passionate about beer than fans of previous generations.

But apparently, in the last decade, the public’s thirst for barley and hops has surpassed its thirst for college football.  Some point to the fact that the Red Raiders have not been nationally relevant since 2008 as a reason for the waining fan interest thus necessitating the sale of alcohol to bring people back to Jones Stadium (and keep them there).

However, the history of Texas Tech football has been dominated by mediocrity.  Outside of a run in the late 1970’s, the Zach Thomas era in the 1990’s and the end of the Mike Leach run in the late 2000’s, Tech football has been the most popular draw in West Texas without being a national or even conference title contender.

Still, for some reason, today’s fans now believe that alcohol sales are going to make the game day experience more exciting and worthy of their money and time.  That is yet to be seen.   Some fear that fan behavior will be worsened to the point that fans with children may not enjoy sitting next to someone who smells like a distillery or who is letting fly drunken strings of profanity with no regard for those around them.

The university stands to see a small financial gain from alcohol sales but the real benefit that Hocutt hopes to see is more butts in seats in the 4th quarter.  He knows that a full stadium is one of the most critical factors in trying to build a winning program.  Look no further than the change that has taken place with the basketball team under Chris Beard for proof.

This season, athletic department  officials began sending out email surveys to season ticket holders after each game asking for feedback and to their credit, they are trying to appease their fan base.  In addition to alcohol sales, Tech is also slashing concession prices, bringing in a more robust police presence (certainly a needed measure because of the alcohol sales), adding food trucks to the tailgating areas, bringing student tailgating closer to the stadium and improving the cell phone reception at Jones Stadium.

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This is Texas Tech’s most sweeping attempt at making up ground in an ongoing battle college football programs around the nation are fighting.  In today’s world of social media and online streaming, changing fan consumption patterns (especially among those under the age of 40) has led many to prefer the convenience of watching games at home, where multiple games can be viewed at once, rather than spending four hours in the September mid-day heat to watch football.

Texas Tech is not the only school struggling to combat the attendance dilema.  Even Alabama has seen fan engagement decline as head coach Nick Saban called out his student body for not showing up to an October home game against Louisiana-Lafayette.

And there are some factors that Hocutt and the Texas Tech athletic department simply can’t control.  The Big 12’s media rights deal has given complete power to television networks when it comes to deciding kickoff times for games.  Fans that cite 11 a.m. kicks as their main reason for not showing up are not going to see their chief complaint addressed any time soon.  And unless Tech figures out how to put a retractable roof over Jones Stadium, it is always going to be hot or windy in September and October in Lubbock.

But Hocutt has done everything in his power to give fans what they say they want.  Now, he has finally brought many fans’ two true loves, football and beer, together in one place in the hopes that Jones Stadium will return to its former glory as a mad house that opposing teams feared.

Next season, a new head coach will be tasked with improving the product on the field.  Whether or not Matt Wells was what those calling for Kingsbury’s job had in mind, Hocutt has brought new blood into the program and we must give Wells an opportunity to succeed before we write him off.  Meanwhile, suds will be flowing from taps all around the stadium as the days of Lubbock being a dry country fade into the distance just like the neon lights of the old strip.

Credit must be given to Hocutt for listening to what fans wanted and giving them almost everything within the realm of human possibility.  Now that virtually all of the main excuses have been eliminated, if we refuse to give our full support to this football program, then we will have no choice but to accept the fact that we aren’t quite as passionate and dedicated of football fans as we have always prided ourselves on being.