Last weekend, University students celebrated Illinois’ win over Iowa. The Illini fever continues this weekend as they head to the Final Four for the first time since 2005.
All the game day focus has led some bars to bump their entry fee up from the usual game day cover. If you thought that $40 was too high, well, buckle up! KAMS, The Red Lion and Joe’s Brewery are asking you to dump $80-$100 this weekend to watch the game.
Second Chance, the third bar located on the second floor of the KAMS megaplex, offers a $50 ticket.
These are general admission tickets that reserve your spot in the bar until tipoff. KAMS’ LineLeap website reads “no cover will need to be paid.” That’s because the price of the general admission ticket replaces the cover entirely — yet doubles the price.
The bars are price gouging.
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Personally, spending a week’s worth of my money at KAMS to watch a game that could be watched at home is really enticing me to watch it at home. But we are social beings! We’re naturally inclined to be near others and to experience cultural events together.
The bar-like atmosphere is where people want to be because that’s where the people are.
It just so happens that Illinois competing in the Final Four drives up the value of watching the game in a campus bar.
Scott Cochrane, the owner of KAMS and Red Lion, and Doug Larson, the owner of Joe’s, capitalize on this to transform what should be an accessible community event into a monetized cash grab. Only people willing to spend a week’s worth of groceries — or wait in line for hours — can be a part of it.
If you’re hoping for lower prices this weekend or in the future, it’s unlikely. There’s no economic incentive to lower cover.
The City of Champaign’s liquor policy prohibits new bars in Campustown — blocking outside competition that would incentivize the bars to reduce their fee. Cochrane and Larson are able to charge such a high amount because their bars exist in a bubble, unfazed by competition.
Their only competitors that charge cover are each other, and they both can implement the same markup.
It’s a situation set in motion by city policy.
Cochrane and Larson thank the city by asking us to forgo groceries for a week just to watch the game. They know we can’t find cheaper cover elsewhere.
Options like Brothers Bar & Grill, Legends Bar & Grill and Murphy’s Pub offer cover-free entry relief. But they’re a different type of competition. These bars won’t be able to lower KAMS’ cover charges by offering lower prices because they don’t charge cover in the first place.
If you want to get into one of the most popular bars on campus, you’ll have to pay.
The only thing that could prompt Cochrane and Larson to lower their entry fees — on game day or not — is additional bars to compete with their businesses.
Emily Harrington, host of the HyperLocal(s) podcast, spoke with Cochrane in October 2024.
“He will tell you some of the best decisions he ever made were the ones he didn’t,” Harrington said. “He will also tell you he loves taking risks.”
Question: Is gouging students one of those risks? Or is he confident that it’ll work out because his competition, Joe’s, is doing the same thing?
At least let us support our team at a reasonable price!
Joe is a junior in FAA.
