News

Badger ticket prices will not increase, board decides

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board officially approved the 2008-09 athletic department budget Friday, including no ticket price increases for UW athletic events in the upcoming academic year.

According to Logan Hulick, an Associated Students of Madison representative on the board, season tickets for basketball will cost less next year since there will be three fewer home games.

According to Associate Director of Athletic Communications Vince Sweeney, the budget was first proposed in the budget committee earlier this month, and this was the first opportunity the entire board had to vote on the proposal.

“The general view of the board on the budget is it’s a positive thing; we do well financially with our winning atmosphere,” Hulick said. “We win and we get fans to come, and the goal of the athletic department is to get not what they want, (but) just what they need.”

Hulick said he credits this “just what they need” mentality as the reason the Badgers are in the bottom four in the Big Ten in football ticket prices.

“I think the price is $39 per game, and the highest is like $66 at Ohio State,” Hulick said. “They could easily raise that.”

The budget was approved unanimously, Sweeney said.

In the wake of the trouble Indiana University head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson has encountered for recruiting violations, the compliance committee gave a presentation regarding UW’s official interpretation of NCAA rules regarding recruiting presentations.

According to Hulick, the compliance committee’s main function is to protect the institution by making sure it abides by all the rules, adding there are more than 2,500 interpretations of various NCAA rules.

Friday, the committee explained the stance on approved presentation software the university originally adopted in January 2007. The NCAA states universities can only use presentation software when giving computer recruiting presentations to possible recruits, Hulick added.

UW’s interpretation is that only standard PowerPoint may be used, with no additional audio/visual components added and no personalized messages for individual recruits.

According to Sweeney, the presentation “demonstrated the far-reaching impact of the NCAA regulations.”

Athletic Director Barry Alvarez also gave a presentation on the recent success of the basketball and wrestling teams.