Everybody has his or her own reason for choosing to go to school here. Some dig the nightlife. Others came for the academics. I even have a friend who came for the food carts on Library Mall. I picked Madison so I could go to football and basketball games to cheer for the Badgers. But it seems that lately, the UW Athletic Department is doing everything it can to mess that up.
This week, the Athletic Department sent out e-mails asking for student input on the ticketing process for both sports, but let's start with football.
Apparently the old football system of trading in vouchers during the week creates lines that are too long and encourages too many kids to skip class.
As if anybody needs encouragement to skip class anyway. If students want to skip class, they'll do it. Standing in line for tickets is just a way for us to feel like we're actually doing something skipping.
Currently, there are two options. The first option proposes that students trade their vouchers in before the first game and would then have the same seat for the entire season.
The good side of this plan is it limits the ability of the scalpers who try to pay their way through college by selling tickets to the Akron game for $100. On the other hand, it basically prohibits you from inviting friends or family to sit with you at games.
(It's also worth noting that the marching band will relocate to the student section this season as well. University officials guarantee this won't decrease the number of student seats available. So if you turn your tickets in late, don't be surprised if you find yourself sitting in Section I with the old people.)
The other option for football tickets is to have students trade in their vouchers at the stadium on game day. Obviously, this will force students to start their \Kegs & Eggs"" sessions a little earlier in the morning, which won't make most of my friends happy.
It may hamper the ability to pre-game, but I like this plan because it forces kids to come to the game before the third quarter. I'll never forget the time last year when a drunk girl showed up in the fourth quarter and insisted I was in her seat. To be fair, I was. To be unfair, she had a penis drawn on one arm and ""DG luvs DU"" on the other. There was no way I was moving.
But while the football changes each have the possibility to improve the student ticket experience, the same cannot be said for the proposed alterations to the basketball proposal.
Basically, the athletic department is doing the same thing it did before last season. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, unless you look back at what happened last year-i.e. it didn't work and they ended up giving out the student tickets for free.
The problem with the basketball season tickets is simple: There aren't enough of them. But ""increase the student section"" wasn't an option in the survey sent to students. (By the way, what's with all the surveys these days? Is somebody trying to put together a UW version of ""Family Feud""?)
Now, where was I? Right, the tickets.
It seems stupid to let so few students into games. I know it's an alumni-funded arena, but last I checked, to become an alumnus, you must first be a student.
I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but those alumni who funded the Kohl Center will die, and guess what? We got next.
The Athletic Department better remember that, or when it's looking for new alumni backers, all it will find is a bunch people who are ticked off because they couldn't get into a basketball game.
Ticked off about tickets? E-mail Joe at jphasler@wisc.edu.
