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Alcohol Sales At UNC Events Bill Clears Final Legislative Hurdle

UNC football fans. Photo courtesy: Jason E. Miczek, theACC.com.

The state House has given final approval to a bill giving all North Carolina public universities the option to sell beer and wine at campus sporting events.

The House had previously passed the measure but it came back to them after the Senate made a minor tweak.

HB389 passed the House by an 88 to 25 margin, almost the same margin they passed it by in April.

It now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper. If he signs the measure into law, University of North Carolina system schools would have the option of selling beer and wine at their stadiums and athletic facilities. Such sales are currently prohibited in most of the system's venues.

Cooper has not said whether he is in favor of the bill or not. A spokeswoman for Cooper said he will review it before making a decision.

Opponents worry that it would create a disruptive atmosphere at athletic events and exacerbate drinking problems.

University leaders were among the supporters of the bill, saying it will give them some control over game day drinking.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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