On the morning after that spectacular Yankees World Series win (sorry, Phillies fans), I was wondering: Do sports fans, in general, drink more than non sports fans?
Apparently, college sports fans do. A Harvard study from several years ago – the first national study of the drinking habits of college sports fans — says that more college student sports fans binge drink and have alcohol-related problems than non-fan students, and that targeted marketing and advertising by the alcohol industry is a huge influence. The study also concluded that schools with higher proportions of fans are more likely to have high rates of binge drinking.
The study, which appeared in the 2003 journal Addictive Behaviors, compared the responses of nearly 3,500 student sports fans (those who indicated in a survey that attending sports events was “important” or “very important” to them) to those of over 8,000 non-fan students. “We know that student athletes binge drink more than non-athletes…it turns out that fans are similar to athletes in their extreme drinking behavior,” said Toben Nelson, the study’s lead author.
So what about you? Does rooting for a team inspire you to drink, and drink more? Does watching a sporting event live make you drink more than you would if you watched it on TV?
P.S. A random twitter search of Yankees and drinking returned plenty of women drinking something (free beers, wine, etc.) while watching last night’s game, though some were just drinking lattes!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I was at the game and was not drinking. 11$ for a beer is excessive. We used to go to a place near the stadium and have two or three cheap beers with dinner before the game but now the food there is so good we eat in side. I’ll drink if I’m watching the game at a bar, but not necessarily at home or live.
I drink more when the game isnt good! lol just kidding.
I think that is a fact that people use to drink when they assist to a sport event…
http://vlopsport.blogspot.com
We’ll find funny thing about sport!