The Cyclone season football opener at Jack Trice Stadium ended with numerous alcohol-related offenses in Ames, law enforcement officials said.

Sgt. Mike Johns with the Ames Police Department said the department anticipated the increase.

“It wasn’t out of the ordinary – I expect an increase in arrests when there is a night game,” he said. “People come to the game earlier to start tailgating. They stay all day here and go to the game. It creates more of a party in Ames.”

Jerry Stewart, interim director of the Department of Public Safety, said alcohol was the biggest problem for DPS this weekend.

“All of the arrests were alcohol related,” Stewart said. “Most of them were for underage possession of alcohol.”

Stewart said two students in the residence halls were transported to Mary Greeley Medical Center for an alcohol overdose – but he did not think they were related to tailgating.

“The two were separate cases,” he said. “Both occurred early Saturday morning, so we don’t believe there was any connection with the football game.”

Johns said most of the police department’s arrests were alcohol-related as well.

“Anytime we have a football game, alcohol is the most common thing that we see,” he said. “Pretty much all of our arrests involved alcohol in some way.”

Johns said the department did not use any extra officers over the weekend.

“The football season begins every year, it is not a new phenomenon. It is a typical curve that we see every year and we are just prepared to deal with it.”

Johns said DPS is in charge of the parking lots and people tailgating. Ames police officers are assigned to patrol the stadium for crowd control and the intersections to direct traffic.

The night game had a major impact on the number of arrests, Johns said.

Stewart said he thinks the number of arrests are often correlated with the opponent of the football game.

“It depends on who we play,” he said. “The increase seems to be connected with the crowd size and the opponent rather than the time of day.”

Johns said he does not expect any major problems for Saturday’s game against the University of Iowa.

“Our fans and the Iowa fans should be used to playing each other by now,” he said.

Alcohol-related arrests Friday, Saturday and Sunday from the Ames Police Department and DPS

Underage possession of alcohol

46

Public intoxication

15

Operating while intoxicated

8

.02 civil violation

1

Public consumption

1

Contributing to minors

2