Report: Eastern Michigan loses $3,000 in beer sales trial run

Eastern Michigan’s trial run of selling beer was a bust.

According to The Eastern Echo, the student newspaper, the school lost $3,000 in its pilot attempt during the Sept. 19 game against Ball State.

Eastern Michigan paid about $7,000 for the beer, the setup and the increased security to thwart rowdiness, but only netted about $4,000 after selling 559 16-ounce beers for $7 each.

It probably didn’t help that the contest against Ball State was the lowest attended of the Eagles' three home contests this year. Only 4,463 people showed up as opposed to the more than 6,000 fans that have attended games against Old Dominion and Army.

Greg Steiner, assistant athletics director for media relations, told the paper the school has no plans to sell beer during any other games this season.

Athletic Director Heather Lyke said despite the loss, the trial run did give Eastern Michigan a chance to evaluate whether it would be profitable to sell beer during games in the future.

“The pilot program gave us a wonderful opportunity to learn and we will take that experience to help us only make it better as we move forward,” Lyke said. “We continue to have discussions about it and will examine different business plans that could allow us to do something more permanent in the future.”

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