Here’s how much money Clemson made selling alcohol at football games in 2025
Clemson sold alcohol at football games for the first time this season.
Now, the final numbers from that experiment are coming into focus.
The university sold 173,775 individual units of beer and seltzer across seven home games at Memorial Stadium and generated $1,822,871, or roughly $1.82 million, in gross revenue, according to data obtained by The State via public records request.
Clemson sold 24,825 individual units of alcohol per game and earned roughly $260,410 in gross revenue per game on average. On a per-game basis, alcohol sales numbers fluctuated greatly based on opponent, kickoff time and weather.
After holding out on alcohol sales for years, Clemson cleared the way to sell beer, wine and/or seltzer at all of its sporting venues in April. It’s one of many ways the school is trying to generate additional dollars amid rising costs in the revenue-sharing era of college sports, which will increase Clemson’s total expenses by about $26 million.
Here’s a closer look at the football game alcohol sales data and what it means.
Clemson football alcohol sales
- Clemson vs. LSU (Aug. 30): 45,460 units sold, gross revenue $467,771
- Clemson vs. Troy (Sept. 6): 12,713 units sold, gross revenue $143,611
- Clemson vs. Syracuse (Sept. 20): 24,832 units sold, gross revenue $260,837
- Clemson vs. SMU (Oct. 18): 24,265 units sold, gross revenue $254,595
- Clemson vs. Duke (Nov. 1): 18,774 units sold, gross revenue $197,093
- Clemson vs. Florida State (Nov. 8): 31,016 units sold, gross revenue $323,760
- Clemson vs. Furman (Nov. 22): 16,715 units sold, gross revenue $175,204
- Seven-game totals: 173,775 units sold, gross revenue $1,822,871
Clemson’s best atmosphere of the season coincided with its best alcohol sales of the season. The Tigers’ season and home opener against LSU on Aug. 30 — a night game and a matchup of preseason AP Top 10 teams — generated the most sales.
The only other home game that touched LSU in terms of sales was Nov. 8 vs. Florida State, Clemson’s only other home night game of the season, and the total unit sales and gross revenue amount from the FSU game were still about 37% lower than LSU.
Clemson’s lowest alcohol sales number came during the Sept. 6 Troy game, which was delayed for one hour and 32 minutes in the first quarter for lightning. Fans had to leave their seats and stay in the concourse during the delay; many didn’t return.
Clemson’s Sept. 20 home game vs. Syracuse also featured a lightning delay — at one hour and 36 minutes, it was actually longer than the Troy game delay. But that delay coincided with the halftime break and didn’t impact alcohol sales as much.
How much money will Clemson make on alcohol sales?
Clemson will split alcohol sales revenue roughly 50-50 with Aramark, its concessions provider, according to an athletic department spokesman. Aramark plays a key role in alcohol sales by staffing the concession areas where drinks are sold.
Alcohol sales fall under a larger concessions contract Clemson has with Aramark for sporting events and university events, and splitting revenue roughly 50-50 between the school and the service provider is a common practice under that contract.
Clemson’s gross revenue from football alcohol sales was $1,822,871. Final net revenue won’t be determined for a while, but half of that total would be $911,435.50 (just under $1 million in net revenue). That doesn’t include fall alcohol sales from other sports like basketball and soccer.
Given the size of the stadium and football culture at Clemson, alcohol sales at Memorial Stadium will make up a majority of the school’s total sales.
Across 15 spring events (13 baseball and softball games, the football spring game and a Savannah Bananas game at Memorial Stadium), Clemson sold 39,392 individual units and generated $470,927 in gross revenue from alcohol sales.
The sales from one football game alone (LSU) were more than that 15-event total.
How do Clemson’s alcohol sales compare with other schools?
Data on college football stadium alcohol sales isn’t widely available, but the numbers from Clemson’s first season selling alcohol seem average nationally.
South Carolina athletics, for example, reported roughly $3 million in gross revenue from alcohol sales during the 2023 football season. Even incorporating a 50-50 revenue split with a service provider, that’s still roughly $1.5 million in net revenue.
According to data from Extra Points’ Matt Brown, some of the national leaders in total units sold at college football games through October were LSU (317,436), Texas A&M (277,156) and Nebraska (265,806). Those schools reported about $3.67 million, $4.74 million and $3.1 million in gross revenue from alcohol sales, respectively.
Another way to look at alcohol sales is on a per-person basis — which is an inexact science, since not every fan who attends a game is of legal drinking age or buys a beer. Clemson’s reported attendance across seven home games was 553,996 people.
During the school’s first year of alcohol sales at football games, that came out to 0.31 alcohol units purchased per person and $3.29 in gross revenue per person.
Those averages — like Clemson’s total sales — sit around the midpoint of Brown’s data set on Extra Points, which includes data from about 35 FBS/FCS schools.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Here’s how much money Clemson made selling alcohol at football games in 2025."
