Wisconsin basketball student tickets sold crazy fast on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, there is a fairly limited supply for UW students.
Student tickets for the 2017-2018 Wisconsin basketball season went quickly. The UW Athletic Department reports the entire allotment was sold in 12 minutes.
According to the news release, this marks the 13th time in 16 seasons student tickets sold out.
That’s fantastic and good job Badger fans. But I’ll admit that this is also a little dispiriting since there is such a small number of tickets available to students.
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The Kohl Center holds 17,287 fans for men’s basketball according to the UW Athletic Department facilities page. Yet, only 2,100 season student tickets are available.
Thus, just 12.1 percent of the men’s basketball seating capacity is allocated for student tickets. In addition, as Wisconsin fans know, students are put in one end in the 100, 200, and 300 levels.
As a result, that dulls the atmosphere a bit. As the overwhelming number of fans are the so called “townies.” An older more polite crowd not known for raucous behavior.
In fact, I’ve been correctly chastised for being a little too, “enthusiastic” sitting in those areas. I was definitely over the line for the other 87.9 percent.
In my defense, I was completely sober, just offering my constructive criticisms for the officiating crew. But my apologies to everyone in section 121.
7am - student tickets on sale
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) September 14, 2017
7:12am - student tickets sold out
Your support is unreal, @UWMadison @UWGratefulRedhttps://t.co/LErnsWIn0s
However, while it would be nice to see more student tickets available. It likely just isn’t financially feasible for the UW Athletic Department. The Badgers need revenue from non-student tickets.
Football and men’s basketball need to squeeze every dime possible out of the seasons in order to help pay for the entire department sport’s budget. Those sports typically receive and generate the most revenue. Other sports may operate at a loss.
In fact, NCAA studies have some pretty grim statistics on athletic spending. Of course, this is mainly used by the NCAA to justify to blunt revenue-sharing with athletes.
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Yet, it’s still disappointing when you see Izzone at Michigan State, Orange Krush at Illinois, or the Paint Crew at Purdue. Those schools have louder and more intimidating home courts because its student section is better located. They also appear to take up a larger proportion of the fans.
Wisconsin certainly has been successful at home in the Kohl Center. The Grateful Red does its best every game. But it would be nice if Wisconsin could squeeze in some reinforcements.