Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Back in February, I traveled to Madison for a book event with my buddy Jason Kirk. Before the book signing, our party arranged for a tour of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium and other athletic facilities.

The field was in the middle of renovations when I was there (for one, the school was installing warming facilities in case Wisconsin needed to host a playoff game in late December), and staffers were discussing other potential facility upgrades on their roadmap.

All of that stuff is very expensive, and I remember offhandedly joking that the school was really going to have to sell more beer this season to pay for everything.

One tiny problem with that strategy. You couldn’t actually buy beer at Camp Randall last year.

Now, that won’t be the case this season. Earlier this week, the school announced that finally, Badger fans will be able to buy “beer, wine and pre-packaged alcoholic products such as hard seltzers” at Wisconsin football games this season, no matter where in the stadium they’re sitting. UW will also sell alcohol at the UW Field House, home of their nationally dominant volleyball program, among other teams.

I was legitimately shocked to learn that previously, one could not legally buy an adult beverage at a Wisconsin football game. I say this with deep love, but every Midwesterner knows that beer is a deeply treasured Wisconsin tradition, right up there with encased meats, cheese curds, and calling everybody with Illinois plates a dirty FIB. Of course, etc. you’d expect that to be honored at Camp Randall, right?

Part of the reason it took so long, I’m told, is because the university was very concerned about binge-drinking (which…given Wisconsin’s reputation…is not an unjustifiable concern). Using alcohol sales at the Kohl Center (for UW basketball and hockey) as a test case, the school wanted more data to study consumer behavior, event management, etc., to make sure they could not only handle the consumer demand, but do it responsibility.

You and I might cheerfully joke about Wisconsin’s reputation for enjoying adult beverages…but the school administration cares a lot about not wanting to promote a negative stereotype.

But the other holdup surprised me. As one Wisconsin staffer told me, Camp Randall is so dang old that just logistically selling booze was a major issue.

The stadium itself was built back in 1917, making it not just the oldest in the Big Ten, but one of the oldest stadiums in the country, period. Because the concourse is narrow, staffers worried about where they could put kegs, about where crowds would congregate, and if they had enough bathrooms.

In the end, I’m told, the school is confident they figured out a solution that works around the limitations of the stadium. Alcohol sales will all be pre-packaged beverages, so nobody has to wheel any kegs or make any drinks. The school will offer alcohol not just at regular concession options, but also at a few pop-up-like stations, which they hope will break up long lines and crowded concourses.

And as for the bathrooms? There’s no room for new bathroom facilities, but the school was able to find some “underutilized stadium space” for portable toilets.

Multiple Wisconsin athletics staffers told me that, truly, this was not a move they made just to make more money. Ballpark projections shared with me estimated that the athletic department will take in six figures, not seven, from alcohol sales, after the school allocates money for security, alcohol-free student programming, and to various vending partners.

The school views this as an initiative to improve the fan experience at their venues. Wisconsinites would expect to be able to buy a brat or some curds at an athletic event, after all. Why not a beer as well?

But even if markets where, uh, there’s clearly consumer demand…actually making it happen can be pretty complicated.

Here’s what else we published this week:

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I’m back at home, back on the phones, back on the ADS4000 updates and back on the proverbial #grind. I’ll have more reporting to share next week. Thanks for reading and supporting EP while I was on vacation. I’ll see you on the internet!