Trying to boost student attendance at a key college football matchup, one school has landed on an unusual promotion.
Free beer, anyone?
Rice University in Houston is offering free 12-ounce beers for students 21 and older at a stand near Rice Stadium’s student section, the university announced Thursday — and beer isn’t the only enticement the university hopes will draw in more student fans for the Owls’ game against 22nd-ranked North Texas on Saturday.
Showing a student ID will also earn free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream; a free T-shirt, for the first 500 students; and a $15 voucher that can be used at two food trucks. The residential college with the highest attendance can win a speaker and a $500 gift card to a local grocery, too.
“The weekend before Thanksgiving, a lot of students are already heading off campus, heading home for the holiday, things like that,” said Kevin Dwan, Rice’s deputy athletic director for external affairs and revenue generation. “So we wanted to be as creative as possible to incentivize the students to stick around and come out to the game. That’s kind of the genesis of it.”
Some promotions are planned weeks or months in advance. To entice fans to watch a home game on Halloween night, Rice gave away free barbecue to university faculty and staff members and students, as well as free samples of vodka and tequila for anyone 21 and older. Yet this week’s giveaway, including the free beer and ice cream, was spur-of-the-moment, Dwan said, after Rice’s win last week improved the Owls to 5-5, one win away from becoming eligible for a bowl game. Then the game against North Texas was selected for a national broadcast on ESPN, offering more exposure for Rice.
“When it got picked up for national TV, you know, it kind of picked up steam to say, hey, we’ve really got to do everything we can to make sure we have a good crowd and good student support,” Dwan said.
When Rice began selling alcohol at home football games in 2008, it became one of the first universities to do so; the practice is now widespread, with many universities over the past decade having established alcohol sales to increase revenue and curb declining attendance. Free beer, however, is rarer. In 2021, Portland State’s football coach memorably paid for fans’ beers out of his own pocket — a 2,064-beer tab that ran to $14,448.
Rice’s policy cuts off alcohol sales inside the stadium after the third quarter, and that won’t change Saturday, said Dwan, who said the university is “taking all the precautions that we normally do, and even more, to make sure that it remains a really safe environment.”
Rice’s student body president and a spokesperson for Rice’s president didn’t reply to messages seeking comment.
Rice isn’t in the running for a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff, which will determine a national champion, but clinching a bowl berth in coach Scott Abell’s first season would be no small achievement for a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2014. In the past decade, out of 137 schools that have played in the highest division of NCAA football, the Owls’ .317 winning percentage ranks 130th.
Attendance at Rice home games this season has filled a little less than half of its stadium’s capacity, on average, according to NCAA figures. The average attendance includes about 800 students per game, according to Dwan. The school, however, has evidence more will come with the right incentive; 2,841 students — out of an undergraduate student body of just under 5,000 — attended the first home game this season.
The weekend before Thanksgiving is “where we typically see a dip in student attendance,” Dwan said.
That’s where the free beer, ice cream and other incentives come in. More than 600 students would constitute a good turnout, he said, considering the timing.
“But, hey, I don’t sell our students short,” Dwan said.
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