Group Prepping for Mercer Games, Tailgaters Could Be Allowed to Drink In Streets

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The city of Macon is preparing for Mercer Bear fans to take over downtown and that may mean allowing you to drink in the streets.

Macon Mayor Robert Reichert says when football returns to Macon it’s going to be a game-changer. So, he decided to appoint someone to tackle some big issues like parking, transportation, and drinking.

That’s where Clay Murphey comes in. He’s leading a group coined the “Football Task Force.” It’s comprised of community leaders and members of EMA, law enforcement, fire, etc.

“The whole idea of the task force was to make sure that the experience that a visitor or somebody from Macon has regarding Mercer football is over the top,” said Murphey.

The group is looking to provide more parking to fans in garages like the one attached to the Wells Fargo building, and working with MTA to provide shuttle service to and from the stadium.

If Macon City Council gives it the go-ahead, tailgaters will be allowed to carry and drink liquor in the streets on game days.

Macon resident, Richard Brown is not a fan of allowing fans to consume liquor outside of restaurants.

“People get tilted, and then they’re walking around and drinking and then you have an accidents and then you got people walking around, pedestrians and you know that’s not setting a good example when you got little kids and stuff,” said Brown.

24-year-old Trey Long supports the idea. He doesn’t drink, but thinks it’d bring a lot more foot traffic to the downtown area on game days.

“I think that if you start enforcing laws on people not being able to drink people are going to start breaking the laws in order to drink, and that’s just going to cause more problems,” said Long.

Restaurants have already experienced what it’s like to have people floating in and out with liquor in hand. Events like First Friday and the Cherry Blossom Street Party allow people to drink and walk.

“We love it, we think it brings people downtown,” said Roger Riddle, Director of Marketing for the Moonhanger Group.

Moonhanger owns the Rookery, and Riddle says as long as people are playing it safe, the Rookery supports it.

“This past summer we had the Macon Beer Festival which was a huge success, and we’re gearing up for the second one this summer. There were no problems at all. I don’t see why it should be a problem during football while people are out celebrating the city and Mercer University,” said Riddle.

The mayor is expecting to present a drafted proposal on the liquor law exception to council in the next few weeks.