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Tickets, page 3
by derek montgomery
The UW-Madison athletic department offers a ticket bundle for $25 that provides admission to students to a wide array of UW-Madison sports such as wrestling, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball and more. Not only is this a great deal for students, it's an excellent chance to see future Olympians and overall amazing athletic skill. Corbin Hunt, assistant athletic director for and director of ticket operations at the UW-Madison, says the athletic department’s Red Card Program has been a great success in generating attendance at non-revenue sports.
“We started the program a few years back with the primary goal of boosting attendance and generating interest in sports not well attended by the student body,” Hunt says. “Last year we sold 1,100 and this year over 600. While the numbers have dropped, our primary goal is not revenue, but boosting attendance. Just a few weeks ago, we had the most students ever to attend a volleyball game, so we think the program is working.”
For the Badger fan not attending UW-Madison, the Red Card program and the cheap tickets provide many opportunities. Students will often sell their tickets before games, posting flyers around campus with information on how to buy their tickets or putting them up on eBay. More often than not, these tickets can be snagged for less than the price at the ticket office. Not only do fans save money, the ticket get them into the student section where the energy and intensity are among the best in the country.
Even at bigger venues like Camp Randall Stadium and the Kohl Center, the cost of hockey, basketball and football season tickets is a steal compared to some seats just a few sections over.
“Football season tickets are an amazing deal here,” Fuhrmann says. “The chance to jump around and watch big time D1 athletics is worth the price of season tickets alone.”
The deal might be even more valuable when it comes to men’s basketball and men’s hockey. With more than 10 home games apiece and the ability to sell each ticket for at least $20, many students cover the costs of their season tickets by selling vouchers for games they cannot attend. When Fuhrmann returned as an alumnus, he was able to find cheap student tickets before football games.
“It was always easy to get basketball tickets the day of a game because there were always people who had tests, had to study or just didn’t want to go,” Fuhrmann says. “Most of the time they were too busy to invest any real time into trying to sell their ticket, so they would often sell the tickets super cheap just to make any kind of money off them.”
With ticket prices continuing to rise across all major sports and at all levels of athletics, the importance of researching ticket options has never been more valuable. While it may seem daunting at first, it is definitely possible to find great tickets at great prices. Fans just need to know where to look.
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| cheap seats: Young professionals looking to get tickets for a football game can usually find student tickets for half the price of regularly priced seats. UW-Madison student tickets for the 2005 season were only $109. photo: derek montgomery |
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fanfare: a gallery of sports fans |
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curb magazine 2005: balance for wisconsin's young professionals
