Clemson University police reported 28 total ejections from Memorial Stadium last Saturday when the Tigers kicked off their season against Louisiana State University, which is higher than average, and some officials warn it could be linked to the newly approved alcohol sales within the stadium.
According to Fox Carolina, this is the first football season that Clemson fans have been allowed to purchase alcohol inside Memorial Stadium. Statements by the university indicated that there was not an increase in alcohol-related issues, but city officials had questions for law enforcement during this week’s city council meeting.
Clemson’s city police chief, Jorge Campos spoke at the city council meeting, saying, “Drinking alcohol has been synonymous with all of those sporting events for so long, how can I tell if the person is more intoxicated because they were drinking at the game versus going to a tailgate spot and doing six shots and then walking down the street.”
Of the 28 total ejections from Saturday’s game, 12 people were arrested. A significant number were denied entry at the gate.
“Between gate opening and the conclusion of the game, there were 28 total ejections from Memorial Stadium. Approximately half of these occurred at entry gates prior to individuals fully entering the stadium,” said Christopher Harrington, interim chief of Clemson University police. “While the number of ejections on Saturday was moderately higher than the average number of ejections across all kickoff times, it was not observed to be substantially higher than other nighttime games with similar crowd size and activity levels. The number of ejections for this event can also be connected to enhancements to staffing allocations and security procedures implemented this season that increased monitoring and interventions by both event staff and law enforcement personnel. We did not have any arrests during the game period and did not observe a noticeable difference in alcohol related issues for this event that would indicate alcohol sales inside Memorial Stadium had a direct contribution.”
