There's a two-way street with this recent spike in Bar owners are complaining that students are getting too trashed in their dorms or apartments and then hitting the bar up late, getting more drunk on arrival. Many students deny this accusation, but it's true. However... the reason why students-- and many working-world adults-- pregame so much more nowadays is because BARS ARE SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE NOW. Suddenly, everything became "The Scene" where technicolour drinks have to cost $8 or more, $5 to hang up your coat, no hats and the cover is outragous because DJ Adjective-Letter-Verb is spinning some wicked beats tonight. The era of the pub, dive bar and the "slum" dance bar took such a hit. So why not drink at home where at least most middle-class people can afford to? Even college bars charge five bucks a beer around here. That's FUCKED. That's why I like e30+ bars now. Some statistic facts for here: Student-frequented bars along the main strip here average five fights a night on fridays and saturdays. 30+ bars average one fight every 2.5 weeks. That shit used to be fun to watch when you're young and chasing a buzz, but now getting smashed in the face with a pint glass by a guy named Ray-Ray has lost some of it's zing, at least in my eyes.
The problem where I am isn't with the students. People get rowdy but everything always stays to a manageable level. The issue is when locals end up in college bars and frat bro fabulous gets in some guys face and winds up stabbed.
This is actually a sad problem in alot of college towns. I went to school in Ohio on a campus a full hour away from any major metro areas, but there were some "sub-communities" that had unsavory characters usually reserved for major cities. They were the ones coming to the bars on weekends to try and grind on college girls who, predictably, resisted their advances. This lead to brawls on brawls and dress codes for the bars that were challenged for being deemed "racist". The ironic fact is that the characters being targeted for exclusion weren't minorities at all but your garden variety white trash and "wiggers" who thought oversized jerseys and doo rags made them hood. College kids fight all the time. But what they don't do is bring knives, thats a problem with the locals and its WAY more scary.
This was something that made me laugh at the bars in my college town. I went to Purdue. There were a lot of "college bars," in West Lafayette, which the locals generally avoided because they were overpriced and filled with d-bags that couldn't handle their alcohol (so, you know, typical college bar). Then there were bars over the river, in Lafayette, where the locals drank. College students would go there on occasion, though, and the students general reaction to seeing the locals was akin to a skinhead seeing a jew in a synagogue. They were irrationally angry at all the locals for being there, despite the fact that it was NOT a college bar. I wanted to tell the college students something along the lines of "these mother fuckers LIVE HERE and this is their bar, you can't get mad at them for drinking at their bar," but there would inevitably be some kind of clash. This was after I had graduated and had moved to Lafayette, when I'd go to the bar with my friends. The local bars were usually much more relaxed, until the college kids showed up. There would always be a group, they would always be annoyed if they couldn't get a table, and they would immediately start shit with anyone that so much as looked in their direction, because they felt that they owned any bar they went into, and fuck any locals. The last time I went, a group of six college kids (two girls, four very bro-tastic guys) got run out of the bar after trying to start a fight (it was a typical 'you lookin' at my girl, dude?' start, when one of the locals dared to walk past them to the bathroom), and one of them guys tripped on the way out and smashed his face on the ground pretty bad. No one was even touching them, the bartender just told them it was time to go and he wasn't serving them anymore, and they were walking out. He came up all blood on his face, and turned and threatened to sue everyone in sight, talking about how his friends dad was a lawyer and blah blah blah. After that I just stopped going to bars altogether, because it just wasn't worth the bullshit.
You pretty much described the town I graduated college from. The cops hang out infront of a bar there because so much shit goes on they might as well just wait until it happens/ try to deterr it with their presence. There's this club there that the owner has said he doesn't want students comming in because their too drunk. He even put up some snarkyass banner about it. My issue with that is like you said if you don't want students showing up hammered maybe don't charge $10 for a fucking beer. Also the place was a strip club that turned into a nightclub. Let's be honest nightclubs are for children. If you're over 28 and you go to a nightclub you're either a gay german man or you're an immature douche.
That's because I AM talking about the town you graduated from. You're talking about my city of London, The bar is Club Rouge (formerly strip club The Fabulous Forum, my first job as a bouncer) and the banner says "RE-OPEN EARLY FOR STUDENTS? WE'D RATHER EAT GLASS!" That's what caused the whole stink in the first place. It's a douche club. Nine dollar drinks and it has pretty lights so it pretends to be "exclusive" even though it shares its parking lot with a cement quarry's staff parking. Chater had his own table there.