Police charged 131 people with various crimes in Iowa City during Saturday’s Iowa versus Iowa State football game. University of Iowa officials released the numbers after announcing tighter tailgating rules prior to the season opener. U-of-I spokesperson Tom Moore says 16 of the people arrested Saturday went to jail and two were charged with O-W-I.
“There were a handful of public urination charges, while the vast majority of the remainder were either related to open containers or possession of alcohol under the legal limit,” Moore said. The arrests on Saturday tripled the number in 2008 – the last time the Hawkeyes hosted the Cyclones. Police issued 15 fewer tickets this weekend compared to Iowa’s season opener on September 4th.
Moore says that’s a good sign – as there were several thousand more people tailgating this past Saturday. “Even though both games were sold out, we had a lot of people just hanging around enjoying the game day atmosphere,” Moore said. “We probably had roughly 30,000 people who came and did not have tickets to the game.”
One man was charged with several crimes, including assault on a peace officer, when police said he refused to leave Kinnick Stadium after “causing problems with fans.”