Rice University is pulling out all the stops to entice its fans to attend this weekend’s game against North Texas, even offering up free beer, T-shirts and ice cream.
Rice (5-5) will host the No. 22-ranked Mean Green (9-1) with bowl eligibility on the line. The Owls are hoping their students are there for the game at Rice Stadium.
Rice, an FBS school in Houston, Texas, has averaged roughly 23,228 fans per game this season, with the best number coming during their home opener against Houston, a game that drew 30,116 fans.
The promotion is intended to help boost the crowd for the all-important game that’s taking place on a weekend when students may already be planning on heading home.
The perks are for those in attendance with a valid student ID, the free beer is only for those 21 and up and the T-shirts will go to the first 500 students.
“We’re playing on national TV, we’re playing for bowl eligibility, we’re playing a top-25 team in North Texas, and it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, so a lot of our students are off campus already and heading home,” Rice deputy athletic director for external affairs and revenue Kevin Dwan told The Athletic. “And we just want to do what we can to encourage them to stick around and come out to the game.”
Rice is putting in safeguards to keep things from getting out of hand with the beer.
Fans will only be allowed to get beer from a kiosk behind the student section, and the stadium will be serving 12-ounce cans rather than the larger ones that are typically sold at games.
Dwan also told The Athletic that there will be an increased presence of Rice University Police.
There is no set time limit before a student can go back to get a beer, but servers and campus police will monitor to ensure no one visibly intoxicated is being over-served.
“It’s one beer per student per trip to the stand, so they can’t come up and get a handful of them,” Dwan said.
Things could certainly be interesting when the Owls and Mean Green take the field on Saturday.
