The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department?s budget proposal unveiled this week brings good news to Badger fans hoping to save some money when buying tickets during the 2008-09 school year.
The proposal would raise the budget by about 6 percent but would not affect fans? pocketbooks due to extra income earned from the Big Ten Network, according to John Jentz, UW Athletics associate director of finance.
Jentz said he could not remember the last time UW did not raise ticket prices from one year to the next. He added the Big Ten Network, which has been criticized by some fans for not being available through many cable providers, is largely responsible for easing the burden on the fans.
?Hopefully, this will help them appreciate why the schools entered a long-term deal with the Big Ten Network,? Jentz said.
UW will receive $6.1 million from the network this year, and more than $4 million of that will go to the athletic department. The rest of the money is distributed for need-based financial aid and to the library system.
Logan Hulick, an Associated Students of Madison representative on the Athletic Board, said it is a very big deal that ticket prices will not be raised.
?We?re in the lower two or three schools in the conference in ticket prices, and that we haven?t raised prices I think is a huge positive,? he said.
The finance committee will vote on the proposal Feb. 19, and the budget will be presented for approval by the entire board Feb. 22. Hulick said he foresees no problems in passing the budget as it currently stands.
According to Jentz, UW made $400,000 more in football concession sales than they had predicted. Jentz said concession sales totals are affected by ?a strange combination of factors that are impossible to predict.?
?If people are hot, hungry and happy, they are more likely to buy concessions,? Jentz said. ?In really close games where people are nervous, they don?t buy too many things.?
Jentz added UW received an additional $200,000 from the conference because both Ohio State University and the University of Illinois played in a BCS bowl game. UW will also get an extra $50,000 from a new agreement with Indianapolis to hold the men?s basketball Big Ten tournament there.
In addition, UW will receive $450,000 more than was originally projected from the revenue profit-sharing plan the university has with Learfield Communications, the company with multimedia rights to broadcast Badger sports.
However, due to of a scheduling change by the Big Ten, Jentz said there will be two fewer home games included in the men?s basketball season ticket package. UW will also be unable to host the American Youth Classic, lowering revenues from men?s basketball.
