KEARNEY, Neb. — The University of Nebraska – Kearney will no longer be selling alcohol at games this season.
Originally, the school planned to sell alcohol at all football games this year, but earlier today, UNK said they would not be moving forward with that decision.
“UNK has decided not to move forward with alcohol sales at Loper football games this season,” said UNK in an official statement. After careful review, insurance costs were cost-prohibitive for UNK and our concession vendor. We will revisit the concept in the offseason to evaluate options for future seasons.”
After the back and forth of announcing alcohol sales and no actual alcohol being sold in the first two games to now, some students believe the school wasn’t fully prepared.
“Not having alcohol sales at UNK definitely feels like UNK might’ve gotten ahead of themselves, dropped the ball, and maybe weren’t prepared for the alcohol,” said Ethan McCormick, a UNK senior.
“Just with them making this decision, it kind of makes you rethink about the decision on why they made it in the first place and kind of even just putting it out there, if they knew that they were maybe not fully ready for it,” said Cameron Mendoza-Watson, a UNK sophomore.
Many Loper students are saying they feel like it’s a letdown.
“I think that’s disappointing,” added McCormick, “Especially, for the students, for sure, that are obviously of age that have kind of looked forward to maybe bringing that energy, and that alcohol sales I think would have added that extra energy to Ron and Carol Cope Stadium.”
Most alarming for students, though, is the financial aspect of this decision. Just a few weeks ago, it was reported that the NU system would look to cut its budget by over $40 million.
The original decision to sell alcohol excited students to help alleviate more financial stress at their particular school and the NU system but instead was dragged into the fire.
“Budget cuts just overall have been a huge thing, throughout a lot of programs in general here at UNK and throughout the just the school system,” said Mendoza-Watson. “I think that’s just a big, big thing that maybe needs to be, relooked at.”
And it’s caused some confusion for Lopers.
“I know budget cuts and, monetary things have been kind of tight at UNK for the last couple of years, so I can understand maybe why they wouldn’t want to go forward with it, but if you look at it in a business sense, you would probably understand also why they would want to have the alcohol,” said McCormick.