Can you bring your own alcohol? The real rules
“Can I bring my own alcohol?” has one answer almost everywhere, and it's not an interesting one. The question worth actually answering is the one people get caught out by instead: is it sold inside, when do they stop selling it, and how much can you actually buy.
The figures below are computed live from the 184 alcohol policies Packaroni currently tracks, each one read off the venue's own published rule. They update as the underlying data does.
BYOB is not a real option anywhere we track
Not one of the 184 venues we track allows you to bring your own alcohol in. This is about as close to a universal rule as anything on this site — closer, even, than the clear bag policy.
That makes “can I BYOB” a question with a boring, fixed answer. The genuinely useful question is what happens instead — and at 147 of the 184 venues we track, the answer is that alcohol is sold inside, just under house rules rather than yours.
Football counts by quarter, baseball counts by inning
Where a venue publishes a specific cutoff for in-house alcohol sales, the convention tracks the sport's own clock, not a shared industry standard:
| Venue type | Sold inside | Explicit cutoff | 2-drink limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | 28 of 30 | 14 of 30 | 21 of 30 |
| College football | 68 of 86 | 41 of 86 | 37 of 86 |
| MLB | 24 of 28 | 15 of 28 | 14 of 28 |
| NBA / NHL arena | 15 of 18 | 1 of 18 | 9 of 18 |
| Theme park | 12 of 19 | 0 of 19 | 2 of 19 |
Football is the most consistent about naming a cutoff — 13 of 30 NFL stadiums and 40 of 86 college programs we track explicitly stop sales at the start of the 3rd quarter, closer to a real league-wide convention than anything else on this page. MLB doesn't use quarters, so it doesn't use that cutoff — 15 of 28 ballparks we track instead name a specific inning, most commonly around the 7th, which is the sport's own version of the same idea.
Arenas and theme parks are the honest exception: we don't see a comparably uniform cutoff convention in either group's published rules. That doesn't mean sales run all night — it means the cutoff, where one exists, is set venue-by-venue rather than following a league-wide pattern we can generalize about.
The two-drink rule
A per-transaction purchase limit, almost always two drinks, shows up most at NFL venues — 21 of 30 we track state one explicitly — and less consistently everywhere else. Where it applies, it's enforced per transaction, not per person per game, so a group can usually make repeat purchase runs; the limit is about how much one line, one ID check, and one purchase can move at a time.
The venues that don't sell it at all
A small number of venues we track go further than an outside-alcohol ban — they don't sell it inside either, under any circumstance:
- Dollywood (Theme park)
- LaVell Edwards Stadium (College football)
- McLane Stadium (College football)
- Williams Stadium (College football)
The reasons differ — Dollywood's ban is a brand decision consistent with the park's family-oriented positioning, while BYU, Baylor, and Liberty sit on campuses with a broader alcohol-free policy that isn't specific to game days at all. Either way, these are genuine exceptions worth knowing before you plan around buying a drink there.
Before you go
The specifics — exact cutoff time, drink limit, and whether the parking lot follows a different rule than the gate — vary enough by venue that it's worth checking the one you're actually headed to. You can look yours up on the alcohol & BYOB comparison page, which lists every venue we track side by side with a link to its own published rule.
Packaroni is an independent resource and isn't affiliated with any league, team, or venue. Policies change without notice and gate/concession staff have discretion on the day — always confirm with the venue directly before you travel. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.