by Matthew Dolbey, Campus Editor
University of Wisconsin men’s basketball fans will soon see a revised season-ticket policy that weighs seniority when deciding who will receive student tickets.
The new ticket policy follows a survey sent out to UW students in early March, asking potential ticket buyers where emphasis should be put for a fair ticket-purchasing strategy.
The new policy will give a minimum of 200 students from each class the chance to purchase season tickets. The applicants will enter into a weighted lottery based on class standing, according to a UW Athletics release. Fifth-year seniors and graduate students will get five “chances,” seniors will receive four “chances,” juniors three and so on.
However, the athletic department promised that “loyalty” ticket holders, students who have held season tickets for at least the past three years when the student section was not selling out, will have first dibs on tickets.
UW sophomore Hope Wallace, chair of the Associated Students of Madison Shared Governance Committee this past year, said men’s basketball was the main target of the survey because of its popularity in recent years.
Student season tickets were also estimated to sell out in a day, despite the face value of tickets having increased by $1 a game, according to Wallace.
Wallace also said a significant portion of students who returned the survey made it clear class standing should be the main deciding factor.
“It wasn’t 49-51 students wanted this; 75 percent of the students felt this way,” Wallace said.
Wallace also said the Athletic Department was very accepting of student input for a revised ticket policy, even though the ASM body made no legislation pertaining to it.
“The Athletic Department, to me, is incredible,” Wallace said. “I think [the research and surveys say] the Athletic Department realizes how important its fans are … They could have changed this whole policy without any student opinion.”
The new policy will also push back the time tickets are made available, moving the sale from its usual spring date to the online-only order form starting Sept. 27 and ending Oct. 1.
With this new delayed ticket policy, Wallace said the possibility will open up for incoming freshmen to buy the basketball seats.
“This is the most fair way to get the most students the chance to go,” Wallace said.
The later purchasing deadline also gives students only a week to know whether they will get tickets. Wallace suggested this will help eliminate some of the congestion of students camping out on the west side of the Kohl Center while waiting to buy season tickets.
Jason Levin, a UW junior, said it was good to make changes to the previous ticket policy, though he partly disagrees with some of the joint student and Athletic Department’s efforts.
“People who have had tickets … should get the tickets,” Levin said. “No questions asked.”
However, Levin said he believed a class seniority policy did have merit. As far as the possibility of waiting outside for a shorter period of time for tickets, Levin said it did not faze him.
“I wasn’t one of those who waited out there … I basically don’t care as long as I can see the game,” Levin said, adding he nonetheless would enjoy close seats.
