Students who want tickets for football, basketball and hockey games will have to dig a little deeper into their wallets next season.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board unanimously passed a measure Friday that will increase prices for the coming 2004-05 season.
Student ticket prices will see the smallest increase. Football season tickets for students will be $16 a game, up from last season?s $14. Men?s hockey and basketball will see a face value of season tickets rise from $7 to $8 a match.
Non-season ticket holders will now pay $16 for a single game and $20 for a Big Ten single game. For men?s hockey and basketball, non-season ticket holders who still want to see a game will pay $9. In the past, students had to pay $7.
The Athletic Board stressed that even after the increases, Wisconsin will remains among the lowest in terms of cost for sporting events in the Big Ten Conference rivals, especially for football prices, which are lowest among their peer groups.
?I?m willing to pay a couple dollars more a game if it means Camp Randall being able to seat 7,000 more people, and be that much more of an intimidating environment to play in,? UW junior Ryan Wherley, a football and basketball season-ticket holder, said.
Wherley feels the increase in prices is ?reasonable.?
UW sophomore Ben Jarvis, however, expressed displeasure with the price increases.
?First it was tuition prices, then book prices, and now this,? Jarvis said. ?I?m broke as a joke.?
The Athletic Department, which produced a profit of about $100,000 last year, will gain approximately $400,000 of revenue from the hike in football ticket prices alone.
During the meeting, the Athletic Department said much of the profit will fund further Camp Randall additions. The stadium will sit a maximum capacity of 82,000 people next year, its highest ever, up significantly from the current capacity of 76,129 fans.
Increases for non-student ticket prices are more varied. Public season ticket prices for football will see the most significant raise of $5. The price of a single game for a non-student wishing to see the Badgers play will also be $33, with the price of a conference Big Ten game at $40.
Basketball prices will jump from $20 to $22 for season-ticket holders and from $20 to $24 for an individual game in the 100 or 200 seating level of the Kohl Center.
Men?s hockey season tickets will see a $2 increase, with individual ticket prices up $4 to $20 a game.
Seven UW winter sports team are currently in the top 20 for rankings in their respective sports. Student season tickets for men?s basketball and football sold out before the season started this year.
