Wisconsin has had two games at home this season. Both were wins against Miami (OH) and Middle Tennessee. Despite those two wins, the fans are struggling to return to Camp Randall. Luke Fickell hasn't produced a compelling product for Badger Nation. The Wisconsin State Journal has released new findings that attendance is down for football, and season ticket sales have plummeted 10%.
This is confirmed by those two games mentioned above. The first game was the lowest recorded season opener in 30+ years. There's an argument that it's because of the weekday night game, but then the Middle Tennessee game came along, and it was still lower than normal.
Wisconsin @BadgerFootball season ticket sales plummet 10% per @ToddMilewski https://t.co/kjmw2m8wa3
— EricTheRed (@RealEricTheRed) September 16, 2025
Chris McIntosh needs to address the failing product and how the fans are not showing up to games
Related: Hot Seat Watch, Week 4: Luke Fickell is feeling the heat but other guys must go first
The report by Madison.com is behind a paywall, and so it's not fair to jump too much into what they discovered, but the results are essentially - the fans are following the product. Losing games is now equaling losing fans. Middle Tennessee, a Saturday game, only drew 70,368. That's about 10,000 less than capacity and approximately 6,000 less than the same game last year.
If you think it's because of the weaker opponent, South Dakota was the opponent they played last year in game two. Through the first two games of the season, Camp Randall has seen nearly 20,000 fewer attendees than through the first two games of last season. That's rough.
Add that to a drop in season ticket sales, and Chris McIntosh and the Wisconsin Athletics Department need to figure out what to do. Winning is the only way to get fans to come back. It's not promos or fun experiences; it's winning. If the product is not compelling in a winning way, fans are not going to put their hard-earned money towards it.
Luke Fickell has a shorter leash than many assume, simply because now it's costing Wisconsin money. Sure, the schedule is hard, but it's now another year in which the outcome appears to be bleak. If it's another 5-win season, fans are going to show up even less next year.