The NCAA volleyball tournament is designed to reveal the best volleyball programs in the country. If you chart that over the course of years, there are few programs as impressive as Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Badgers and Cornhuskers also boast an impressive fanbase that sells out arenas, which even some of the winning programs can't say. On that front, Nebraska raised the bar again.
Though actually, in many ways they may be trying to play catch up to Wisconsin, at least in one area.
The other day, Nebraska released the 2026 seating chart and donation levels for season ticket holders. Knowing they have fans who will pay, they are putting out insane prices. The money is going to the expansion of the arena to a 10,000-seat venue and to help fund NIL.
Nebraska released its new seating chart/donation levels for John Cook Arena for the 2026 season. Tickets will all cost $300 but seat donations will range from $5,000 for courtside seats to $50 per seat for the corners. They are also adding Loge seating in the southwest corner. pic.twitter.com/iQ10Inh0ai
— Lincoln Arneal (@Lincoln_VB) December 10, 2025
Wisconsin is outpacing Nebraska in seating capacity and the new expansion still won't help
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Nebraska is expanding the John Cook Arena to over 10,000 seats. That's still about 7,000 short of what Wisconsin can bring in for the Kohl Center. The prices for those 10,000 seats at Nebraska may have raised the bar, but the overall fans in the arena still won't hold a candle to the Badgers.
The part that Wisconsin will need to strongly consider is seat prices and funding for NIL. They have to weigh a lot when it comes to these decisions. They will want to keep up with Nebraska on paying players, but can also go for lower prices with more seats (crowdsourcing model). It will be interesting to see whether the increases in Nebraska ticket prices change how Wisconsin does its seating model.
Right now, the courtside seats cost about $450 for a season ticket, with a $250 contribution minimum. Nebraska is suggesting that all season-ticket seats will be $300, but the contribution required to secure seats will change. To get courtside, a minimum donation of $5,000 is required. So, if you were buying two seats, you'd need to donate $10,000 to the program and plan for a few more thousand to pay for the seats.
That's a big change in comparison and may cause Wisconsin to up their own ticket prices.