A vertical ID won’t get you alcohol at Columbia sports games, even if you’re 21

USC’s Williams-Brice Stadium and Segra Park, home of the Columbia Fireflies minor league baseball team, do not accept vertical IDs from young adults who want to purchase alcohol at the stadiums.

The University of South Carolina football stadium has been following this policy for the past two game seasons, and Segra Park has recently followed suit.

The previous rite of passage for newly turned 21-year-olds has been cut short as they are turned away from drink stands for not having a horizontal ID. Vertical South Carolina drivers’ licenses are issued only to anyone under 21  years old. 

Segra Park Team President Brad Shank confirmed the change in policy. 

“It’s just a rule we have, more for ease,” Shank said. “When we have a lot of people in line for drinking bracelets, we want to make sure that we’re trying to be as efficient as possible to get people into the ballpark quicker.” 

Though the rules at Segra Park are new, other concessionaires across the country have similar rules. 

South Carolina state law also was amended in May 2025 to prohibit the use of vertical IDs for alcohol purchases at collegiate sporting venues.  

Since then, there has been confusion about how the new policy is being enacted in USC’s stadiums.  

Chris Rogers, USC’s executive associate athletics director, helps oversee the “Know Before You Go” section on the Gamecock Athletics website. Information from the section also is sent out in a mass email, and to Gamecock Club members, at the beginning of the season, laying out the stadiums’ rules, including the need for a horizontal ID.  

Although this policy is now codified into South Carolina law, it has been in place at USC for the past two seasons, Rogers said.

He knows not everyone reads the “Know Before You Go” emails. But he said USC is trying to serve “in the safest manner possible. Even though, you know, it’s going to create a couple issues here and there, where people are upset because they don’t have the correct ID.”

USC graduate Thomas Cochran has experienced trouble with having a vertical ID at Williams-Brice before.  

“I would say, if anything, it just made me kind of confused,” Cochran said. “I didn’t really understand it.” 

State IDs from across the country typically don’t expire when the holder turns 21. But the holder still can’t buy alcohol.

Because many students are from out of state, there’s little opportunity for someone to receive a new ID soon after they turn 21.

Even for South Carolinians, the timeframe can be daunting. 

“Given how long it can take to go get a new ID, in the middle of the day, at the DMV, with class, I just never went,” Cochran said.  

The threat of fake IDs, which are typically horizontal, remains.  

“A lot of people are going to try and use fake IDs at sports events, and those are going to be horizontal,” Cochran said.  

The fear of fake ID usage is a rising concern, but each of the stadiums is taking measures to ensure that everyone uses a valid ID. The Columbia Police Department has officers present at every stadium event to check IDs if they have concerns, Shank said.  

Still, policymakers agree that favoring horizontal IDs helps make sure everyone is of age and kept safe. 

“A lot of the major concessionaires nationally are moving to this policy just to eliminate the possibility of their staff members not appropriately checking IDs,” Rogers said.