The Albuquerque City Council voted 6-3 Monday to deny UNM’s liquor-license waiver to serve beer and wine in The Pit club level suites, University Stadium and during special functions at the SUB.
“I would like to ask these folks why they would give $40,000 to have a drink, why wouldn’t they want to give $40,000 to just help Athletics,” Councilor Rey Garduño said about patrons who would benefit the most from alcohol service at the venues.
City Councilors Ken Sanchez, Debbie O’Malley, Dan Lewis, Trudy Jones, Don Harris and Garduño voted against the resolution. Councilors Brad Winter, Isaac Benton and Michael Cook supported it.
Garduño said the council denied the waiver because of public health and safety concerns.
GPSA president Lissa Knudsen was one of 14 attendees who gave their opinion about alcohol being served at The Pit. She said if UNM addressed public safety, health and discrimination issues, it’d have a better a chance of passing the measure.
“I think the councilors would be very receptive if UNM came with a different request and addressed some of the public safety issues and the discrimination that those only in the suite level are allowed to have access to alcohol,” she said.
In October, the New Mexico Alcohol and Gaming Division denied UNM’s liquor license application because alcohol cannot be sold 300 yards from a school or church. UNM then took its case to the City Council.
Associate Athletics Director Tim Cass said alcohol would only be served at club levels. Pit boxes cost $40,000 a year.
“Service would be limited to beer and wine and only in the club and suite areas of football and basketball that require limited entry through secure entry points,” Cass said. “This makes up 10 percent of the total seating capacity.”
He also said there would be one professionally trained server to every two suites and alcohol service would stop 10 minutes into the second half, or roughly 20-30 minutes before the end of the game.
Besides BYU, he said UNM is behind other Mountain West
Conference schools because it does not sell alcohol at games.
But Council President Sanchez disagreed.
“The University of New Mexico has played basketball at the Pit for 40-plus years. Is it necessary to serve alcohol? We are Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our circumstances are different than Utah or Colorado.”
Cass declined comment after the hearing.
Winter said he supported the measure because of its financial ramifications.
“This is a chance for private money to retire a public debt,” he said.
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Lobo club member Bill Michael said the economic incentive is too great to ignore.
“Bring people in that will spend up to $40,000 a year. Is it a problem if we want wine and beer?” he said. “I have season tickets, and I see no problem with people who want to help the University Athletics Department.”
Rep. Moe Maestas had similar remarks.
“The suites are not near the student section,” Maestas said. “It’s conducive to the marketable value of the Pit itself. More importantly, local business leaders can invite clients from out of the state and put them in an environment that they are accustomed to all over the nation.”
Garduño, a UNM basketball season ticket holder for 32 years, continued to bring up the public safety issue. He said he has seen drunken confrontations from fans in the stands and in the parking lot.
“I don’t think it demonstrates that this will be a better venue,” he said. “It is a public issue, not just for the University but the city.”
Before the vote, UNM’s lawyer Margaret Meister said there may be jurisdictional issues that might overturn a city ordinance because the UNM sports venues are on state land. She said UNM was constitutionally exempt because it is a governmental institutional body.
But Garduño said once fans leave UNM, whether from the Pit, University Stadium or the SUB, they are in Albuquerque’s jurisdiction and any conflicts they might cause because of their inebriation are the city’s issue.
Albert Chavez, from the New Mexico Alcohol and Gaming Division, denied UNM’s original request and said the City Council has jurisdiction to make a decision that cannot be contested in a lawsuit.
“Do you have the power to either grant or deny this? I am of the opinion that you are,” he said. “If the council says ‘no’ tonight, it’s a done deal, and that’s it.”
