New premium seating could send Wisconsin fans from lower bowl to nosebleeds (2024)

Some University of Wisconsin men's basketball season ticket holders could have their seat location moved from near the Kohl Center court to the upper level.

The Wisconsin athletic department on Tuesday started contacting season ticket buyers who will be impacted by the addition of premium seating near the court and hockey rink this offseason.

In emails and communications that ticket customers shared with BadgerExtra, Wisconsin informed some fans with men's basketball seats in the lower level, particularly on the sidelines near the court, that their location won't be available in the same setup starting in the 2024-25 season.

Wisconsin is using a project to narrow the hockey rink from 97 feet wide to the NHL standard of 85 feet to change rows of seats near the playing surface into premium seating areas. Senior associate athletic director Jason King said the new areas will be like the ledge seats installed in 2022 in Camp Randall Stadium's south end zone, with chairs behind a surface that can hold food and drinks.

But that move is giving some men's basketball fans the boot from lower-level seats they have held since the Kohl Center opened in 1998.

Wisconsin's email Tuesday said new seats for affected seat holders who don't want to pay for the premium space will be assigned based on the buyer's lifetime giving amount to the athletic department as of the end of May.

The new seats could be in the 100, 200 or 300 levels, Wisconsin said.

The new premium spaces include access to a club space with all-inclusive food and nonalcoholic beverages and a cash bar, according to a Wisconsin spokesperson. The cost starts at $6,000 per season for men's basketball and $1,750 per season for men's hockey, with the priority going to donors who make additional capital project contributions.

Lower-level season tickets for men's basketball games in 2023-24 cost $558 plus a minimum contribution of $300 per seat in the middle three sections.

Some ticket holders said they paid $2,500 per seat when the Kohl Center opened to be able to have their choice of locations and now they're being moved out.

"I thought it was a great deal to get the seats that we got," said Jerry Metzger of Oregon, who has had two men's basketball tickets on the aisle two rows off the floor in mid-court Section 108 since the building opened.

But now Metzger, 71, said he's resigned to the likelihood that he's going to let his time as a Badgers men's basketball season ticket holder lapse after 40 years.

"Between the NIL, the portal, the seeming indifference to the fans by the UW athletic department, maybe it's just time to pull the plug," Metzger said.

He added: "You feel like you've exhibited loyalty to the university for a long time and that loyalty is not being reciprocated. But it is what it is."

Some season ticket holders questioned whether the $2,500 per seat paid when the Kohl Center opened was a seat license that entitled them to their location until they decided not to renew. The one-time payment contributed more than $7 million toward construction of the Kohl Center.

A Wisconsin spokesperson said the $2,500 payment when the building opened was only to reserve those spots at the time. The spokesperson said season ticket invoices and order forms say the athletic department can "change any seating assignment without prior notice, thus there are no guarantees."

Wisconsin said in its email to men's basketball season ticket holders affected by the change that 378 general bowl seats are being replaced with 188 premium seats. The athletic department contacted 135 of the 3,185 men's basketball season ticket account holders about seats changing, according to a spokesperson.

For basketball, the lower rows of sections 106 through 110 on the east sideline and 120, 121, 123 and 124 on the west sideline are being altered. Rows A through K in section 124 and a row behind the visiting team bench also are being taken over for internal athletic department use and are no longer available for purchase.

The seating changes are happening as Wisconsin downsizes its men's hockey rink to the traditional North American style. The Olympic width of 100 feet had a moment in college hockey in the 1990s, and the Badgers had the surface at the Dane County Coliseum, their home from 1967 to 1998, expanded to 97 feet in 1994. The Kohl Center matched that width.

That alteration opened an opportunity for the Badgers to add lower-level premium spaces after the athletic department saw success with similar ideas in the south end zone at Camp Randall Stadium, according to a spokesperson.

Hockey seating at the Kohl Center also is impacted by the renovation. Holders of 89 men's hockey season ticket accounts were notified of changes, according to a Wisconsin spokesperson. Fans who had seats along the boards were informed that those locations will be about 6 feet farther from the ice starting next season but the message offered information about pursuing premium seating.

The higher-cost tickets for hockey will go in that 6 feet between where the boards were and where they will be.