CLEMSON — Clemson‘s alcohol policy change has been a boon.
According to the school’s athletic department, Clemson generated $467,843 in gross revenue and sold 45,045 units in the Tigers’ 17-10 loss to LSU on Aug. 30 at Memorial Stadium to open the 2025 football season in front of sold-out crowd of 81,500 fans. The numbers exceed what Clemson made from a sold-out baseball game for the Savannah Bananas in April at the same venue, which sold 27,181 units to make $346,684 in gross revenue.
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The Clemson-LSU game was the first time alcohol was sold at regular-season football games. The net for alcohol sales are not available yet because Clemson is still figuring out expenses and revenue split, according to team spokesperson Jeff Kallin. The school received its gross revenue numbers from Aramark Sports and Entertainment, the company that sells alcohol at concession stands and kiosks at games.
The athletic department announced April 1 that alcoholic beverages would be available for purchase at designated stands and kiosks at sporting events. It was one of three Power Four schools nationally (the others being Utah and BYU), including the only school in the ACC, SEC and Big Ten, that neither offered the sale of alcoholic beverages in its athletic venues nor accepted sponsorship revenue from alcoholic beverage advertisers.
Revenue generation was a reason why Clemson finally permitted alcohol sales to address increased costs in 2025-26 after the NCAA settlement. The cap for this season is approximately $20.5 million, and Clemson plans to use the full amount and to fully fund 150 new scholarships across all sports, increasing totals from 275 to 425. That will be an approximate additional cost of $6 million for Clemson.
Athletic director Graham Neff said previously Clemson has no plans of cutting sports, so generating more dollars while minimizing other expenses will be an emphasis in 2025-26. In fiscal year 2024, Clemson athletics lost several hundred thousand dollars.
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Clemson began revenue-generating initiatives ahead of the settlement being approved, including adding a student athletics fee, increasing season-ticket prices for football games, and hosting non-NCAA sports on campus like the Savannah Bananas. It also created Clemson Ventures, a revenue-generating entity that will produce in-house sales and sponsorship and facilitate NIL deals with businesses for Clemson athletes.
For Clemson’s spring football game in April, which was the first sporting event the school sold alcohol at, it welcomed around 35,000 fans and sold 3,394 units to make $35,174 in gross revenue. The momentum has carried over to the football season with coach Dabo Swinney’s team having six home games remaining in 2025 and potentially a College Football Playoff game.
Clemson (0-1) will look to continue to add dollars when the Tigers host Troy (1-0), a Group of Five program, on Sept 6. (3:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network) at Memorial Stadium.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alcohol sales: How much Clemson made in revenue from LSU football game
