Ranking college football’s 2018 neutral-site games exclusively by beer situation

Though many teams have started selling beer at their home games, lots of college football stadiums still don’t offer alcohol on game days. The big neutral-site games that have come to dominate Week 1, though? You can buy beer at them, and at other NFL stadiums hosting games throughout the season. Let’s rank each game’s situation by options and price:

I’m openly biased as a current Atlanta resident, and I don’t care. Speaking from personal experience, the prices and selection at this stadium are second to none. Anything you’d want domestic-wise is covered here, and the prices are great (or at least have been so far). The building has 1,264 beer taps when it opened in 2017:

The stadium just implemented a brand new Craft Beer Zone, where 10 Charlotte breweries will have selections at multiple locations in the stadium:

In all, the local breweries that will be available at Bank of America Stadium are: Birdsong, Blue Blaze, Legion, Lenny Boy, Olde Mecklenburg, Resident Culture, Sugar Creek, Sycamore, Unknown, and Wooden Robot. (Catawba, whose primary production facility is in Morganton and opened a brewhouse/tasting room in Charlotte last year, along with D9 Brewing in Cornelius, will also have beer for purchase at games.)

That makes for 24 taps in this area alone, complete with TVs. Having experienced the CLT breweries before, they’re worth the hype.

This one isn’t exactly at a neutral site, but let’s count it because it’s at an NFL venue. Last summer, FedEx added a ton of craft beer selections, including:

There’s also a Bud Light Party pavilion, and a dang Hooters in the stadium, if either is for some reason up your alley.

I’m from Orlando. This place has come a long way through renovations in the last five years. And the beer’s fine. The prices are pretty average, but you can get all the domestics you want, plus a solid selection of craft and local beers.

A menu on the stadium’s website from 2016 suggests a large selection, although mostly standard beers like Corona, Goose Island, Shocktop, Fat Tire, Stella, Guinness, Shock Top, and a lot of Denver-brewed selections.

Another venue that’s not exactly known for it’s cheap prices, but it recently expanded its craft beer selection to include all of the following:

-Bronx Pale Ale

-Bronx Spring Pale Ale

-Catskill Ball Lightning Pils

-Chelsea Checker Cab Blonde

-Southern Tier IPA

-Southern Tier Porter

-Southern Tier Tangier

-Yuengling

A couple years ago, the stadium invested in Midwestern craft beers:

New for the 2016 season are the Heartland Hops Portables, found outside sections 102, 350 and 427. These locations focus on the Midwest’s finest craft brews with selections such as Leinie IPL, Leinie Honey Weiss, Leinie Oktoberfest, Revolution Fist City, Leinie Sunset Wheat, High Life, Hamm’s, Miller Lite, Summer Shandy, Half Acre Vallejo, Alarmist Entrenched, Tocayo Hominy White, Bell’s Two Hearted, and Off-Color Tooth & Claw.

This game’s also not exactly at a neutral site, but let’s count it.

Variety is important not just in beer, but in price:

Alcoholic beverages are plentiful as well — the choices cover a wide variety of beers, such as Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller, Michelob Ultra, Dos Equis, Fat Tire, Killian’s, Saint Arnold, and Blue Moon. A regular beer will cost $5, and there are plenty of different beer vendors around the concourse, or other alcohol concessions like Kirby or Fannin Icehouse, which are both one-stop shops offering premium bottled beer for $12, premium draft at $11, wine for $9, and non-alcoholic beer for $6. You can also find margaritas, daiquiris, and Pina coladas at $10 for the smaller size and $14 for the large.

Jerry World is one of the more pricier venues in all of sports, even for domestics like Miller and Coors:

Most of the beer signage tells you that Miller is the sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys, so throughout the stadium Miller Lite and Coors are sold at the price of $9. In addition, Shiner Bock, Dos Equis, MGD 64, and Blue Moon are sold for $9.50. If you have club seats you will have the same variety of beer, along with mixed drinks. The stadium does serve wine in all club bars, including the four upper concourse bars and at the portable beer carts. However, the most popular adult beverage seems to be the Cowboy Rita (a frozen margarita).

There isn’t much out there regarding a specific beer selection, and who knows exactly what prices will look like, but this early indication is not encouraging:

Wherever you travel to watch your favorite teams this year, hopefully this can help you navigate your way through the beer selections at whichever stadium you find yourself at.