LEXINGTON — The University of Kentucky will not sell alcohol at sporting events in the 2019-20 school year, UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart announced Thursday.

In May, the SEC moved to allow individual schools to decide whether to sell alcohol in the general seating areas of their stadiums, ending its ban on alcohol sales in all but premium seating areas like luxury suites.

The policy went into effect Thursday.

In a news release announcing the rule change, the league stressed the new policy "is not to be construed as a requirement or expectation that SEC institutions will sell alcohol at athletic events." UK president Eli Capilouto said in a statement at the time the university would consider its options over the coming months before arriving at a decision that "is right for the university, our student-athletes, and the experience and safety of our fans."

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Barnhart said the school decided after discussions that it did not want to change its fan environment in the general seating area.

"I don’t think you’re going to please everybody on every issue," Barnhart said. "What we’ve tried to do is say in the overarching piece: We want people to feel that it’s a family-friendly safe place to come to watch sporting events where the focus is primarily on young people that play the games and keep the focus there."

At least four other SEC schools — Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State — have said they will not sell alcohol in general seating areas this season.

Kentucky is one of several schools that already sold alcohol in premium luxury suites like the Woodford Reserve Club at Kroger Field, a lounge area named in a sponsorship deal with the central Kentucky bourbon company. Renovations at Rupp Arena are currently underway to add luxury suite areas for fans who pay for access.

The new SEC policy allows schools to sell beer and wine in stationary locations in public areas. Schools must set limits on the number of drinks sold in a single transaction and cutoff alcohol sales by a predetermined point in the game (end of the third quarter in football and the second-half 12-minute television timeout in men's basketball).

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Barnhart, who said the decision was "my call," said the possibility of making money off alcohol sales was not considered and the feedback he received did not suggest season ticket sales would dramatically increase with alcohol sales.

Asked twice why he thought alcohol sales in premium suites were OK but sales to other fans who pay less for their tickets were not, Barnhart pointed back to the atmosphere he felt has developed in the general seating areas at Kroger Field and Rupp Arena.

"It’s a little more confined to that area (in the suites)," he said. "We have fewer people in terms of responsibility in terms of that. When you do the math it’s not near the numbers that we’re responsible for. … There’s decision making that goes into all of that too. There’s no one size fits all in these things.

"... I'll be honest with you, I felt like if we said we were going to at this point in time with what people have enjoyed with the experience at Kroger Field and Rupp Arena part of that is that they would walk away from us if we did that."

The decision was met quickly with backlash on social media. Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones, who runs a popular UK fan website and is mulling a run for Senate against Mitch McConnell, was among the most vocal critics.

"I like Mitch Barnhart but his stance on alcohol is totally hypocritical," Jones tweeted. "They already sell alcohol at UK games to rich people in suites. He should say 'my decision is not to sell alcohol unless you have a lot of money.'"

Barnhart left open the door to monitor how alcohol sales in the general seating areas at other SEC schools work in the coming year, but he was clear that the decision was not going to be reevaluated on a annual basis.

He also dismissed the suggestion that alcohol sales would make a substantial difference in an environment where costs of college athletic departments are increasing and attendance is decreasing across the country.

"That is not going to be the answer for anything that’s going forward in college athletics," Barnhart said. "If that’s our answer, we’ve got real issues in college athletics. We’ve got to figure out the right way to do this thing and get the right formula for our budgets and our programs and our teams. Alcohol is not an answer for that."

Jon Hale:jahale@courier-journal.com; Twitter:@JonHale_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today:www.courier-journal.com/jonh.