Regents say alcohol at game would raise insurance costs
It’s one of the issues the Tennessee Board of Regents is looking at as it makes a decision on whether to approve a contract the school signed to play at the new Memphis arena.
A decision on the matter could come as early as Friday.
The Memphis Grizzlies, who run the arena and would sell concessions under a deal that pays the school about $800,000 a year, have said the deal will be off if the Regents don’t approve the alcohol sales portion of the contract.
The University of Memphis is negotiating with the Grizzlies on who will pay for the additional liability insurance, according to staff memorandums that the Regents will review this week while considering whether to approve the contract.
“Under the current proposal, it is not contemplated that alcohol would be restricted to any particular area of the facility and that all concession areas would have alcohol being sold and would be accessible to all places in the arena,” Board of Regents Chancellor Charles W. Manning said in his memo.
A Regents committee takes up the issue Thursday at a meeting in Johnson City, and will review a number of documents submitted by staff members and the university. The committee is expected to offer a recommendation that would be presented to the full board Friday.
Current Board of Regents policy prohibits the sale of alcohol at facilities “owned by or under the control of” the institutions governed by the board. But the Memphis arena, scheduled to open this fall, is off campus and not owned by the university.
Manning decided to take the lease agreement to the board because the alcohol provision is a controversial departure from the norm at Board of Regents’ institutions.
One other regents school has alcohol sales at sporting events. Beer is sold at The Coliseum in Nashville during two Tennessee State University home football games. The Coliseum is owned by the city but operated by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, which control its concessions.
The Regents staff memos emphasize the legal liability issue, which would require additional insurance. There is no estimate of how much the additional insurance will cost, and a separate staff memo notes that the insurance issue is “in negotiation.”
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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.gomemphis.com