Minnesota has joined the University of Wisconsin in requiring attendees of its sports games to take an alcohol test before admission if they previously have had a drinking offense at the stadium.
The policy has its origins in stadium violence around the country, and particularly the University of Minnesota’s own problem with rowdiness: a 2003 riot celebrating a national hockey championship win resulted in over $150,000 in damages.
The program, known as Check BAC, requires student season-ticket holders who had been previously ejected from a football game to go through a special gate for their alcohol test. If they pass, they can enter the stadium, where the sale and possession of alcohol is banned.
The University of Wisconsin program is known as “Show and Blow,” and similarly requires a student who has been ejected from a game to pass an alcohol test. The point of their program, said the Assistant Dean of Students Kipp Cox to the newspaper The Daily Cardinal, is to not only make the stadium safer, but to encourage students to come into the stadium earlier. It’s a policy that Cox claims has improved the student section of the stadium.
The program has even received endorsements from students now involved in it, although they have reservations about certain aspects. One student claimed they couldn’t find the breathalyzer stand. Overall, it is a good policy though, according to another student who in 2008 needed to be breathalyzed to enter a game: “You don’t want to tell all your friends that you’ll try to find them in the stands later because you have to take a breathalyzer test.”
This is a policy that could be easily implemented with a disposable alcohol test like the Breathscan. For those under the drinking age, an 0.02% (no tolerance) test is available; for those over 21, a 0.08% test can be administered (this is the cutoff level used by the University of Minnesota).
If you are interested in obtaining an alcohol test for your home, check out the selection of products at Home Health Testing.
Alcohol Test Blog 