SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – In the first year offering alcohol sales at athletic events, five South Dakota universities combined sold more than $500,000 in the 2022-23 school year. 

The South Dakota Board of Regents approved a new policy in 2022 to allow the sale of alcohol at the state’s public universities after years of discussion about the topic. The BOR policy requires schools to define start and end times for alcohol purchases, sales must be separate from general concessions and each event will be required to have alcohol-free zones.  

In total, $587,223 in alcohol sales were reported by five universities in events held Sept. 2022 to May 2023, according to data shared by BOR. South Dakota State University accounted for more than half of the total alcohol sales with $332,803 between football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling and softball events. 

The University of South Dakota had $106,137 in alcohol sales, while Northern State University had more than $95,000 and Black Hills State University had $40,995. South Dakota School of Mines, which has car ramps where people can bring their own food and beverages for football games, had $12,021 in alcohol sales and Dakota State University has not elected to sell alcohol at athletic events. 

You can see a breakdown of the total alcohol sales through the first school year of the new policy in the graph below. 

SDSU football, which played nine home games in 2022 and won its first FCS national championship, resulted in $275,475 in alcohol sales with attendance of 113,227. 

Twenty-four SDSU men and women basketball games had $43,177 in alcohol sales, while six wrestling events sold $8,596, seven volleyball matches sold $4,115 and five softball games sold $1,440. 

USD, which offered alcohol sales in premium/club areas before the 2022-23 season, saw a 128% increase in alcohol sales with the new BOR policy. USD saw its highest month of alcohol sales in Nov. 2022 with $31,299, while Sept. 2022 was $26,560 and Oct. 2022 was $24,110. 

Each school has different athletic events it can sell alcohol at. 

NSU’s highest month of alcohol sales was Oct. 2022 with $37,105, while BHSU had its highest month in Sept. 2022 with $11,944. BHSU reported men’s and women’s basketball games totaled $20,999 in alcohol sales just edging football games which totaled $19,995.