If you remember, last week, I wrote that head coach Bruce Barnum of Portland State promised to buy all of the beers for whoever showed up to their game versus Western Oregon. Well, 3,124 people showed up to the game, and they drank a total of 2,064 beers.
— Bruce Barnum (@CoachBarnum69) September 21, 2021
"It blew up a little too much"
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) September 20, 2021
Bruce Barnum is picking up the tab for more than 2,000 beers.
His offer helped bring in more than 3,000 fans to Portland State's home opener vs Western Oregon. Here's part of our Sports Sunday interview.#GoViks | @psuviksFB | @psuviks pic.twitter.com/5dmPfS7IXx
I have to say that I’m a little disappointed in Portland State’s fanbase. The man was offering free beer, and only 3,124 people showed up and didn’t even fill the stadium to have its capacity. Portland State’s stadium can hold 7,600 people. I would have thought that tickets would have been sold out. The man was offering free beer. Of course, there were probably children there, but that’s only 0.6 beers per person. I wanted to see some crazy beer staff or beer snakes being formed through the stands. What are we doing Portland State?
I love how there were only two options. It probably had to do with sponsorship or something. If you were a beer snob, you could get your fancy fresh squeezed IPA, and if you wanted to chug light beer, you got Coors Light. I hope that the concessions gave the coach some deal since he gave the school amazing advertising.
Penn State coach James Franklin called Portland State coach Bruce Barnum last week to ask him about last week’s game-day beer offer.
— John Canzano (@johncanzanobft) September 21, 2021
Said Barnum: “It reached (Penn State)… it reached my brother in Tokyo, it reached my parents in Minnesota… it turned into a mini-Woodstock."
I’m assuming that the IPA’s were more expensive than Coors Light, but it was $7 per beer by my math. Stadium beer is insanely priced, but $7 per beer is a little extreme, especially since the head coach was the one who paid for it all. Portland State isn’t a juggernaut in college football, so I think it’s safe to assume that Bruce Barnum isn’t making the $10.6 million yearly salary that Nick Saban is making. Hopefully, head coach Barnum made some new fans, and they will keep coming to the games regardless if there’s no free beer. It helped that Portland State won 21-7 on Saturday. Also, I love how coach Barnum’s Twitter handle has 69 at the end…nice.