Sports Illustrated has decided to stop by Madison for Halloween this year, much to the horror of some local business owners and city officials.
“Initially, I was pleased to learn that Sports Illustrated On Campus picked Madison as the only Midwestern destination for its Road Trip feature,” Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said in a letter to the editor of Sports Illustrated. “I assumed the interest was based on our great downtown campus with the popular Memorial student union overlooking the lake, our fun Badger sporting events, the eclectic venues on State Street or perhaps the draw of our new $205 million Overture arts center.”
Cieslewicz went on to say he was disappointed by the magazine’s portrayal of Madison as the center of drunken riots and anarchy.
“Since last year’s incident, my office has been working closely with the University of Wisconsin, student groups, business owners, police and others to change the tone of the event and to discourage a large influx of people from out of town,” Cieslewicz said. “In fact, last year the vast majority of the arrests for the most serious incidents were of people who did not live in Madison.”
Melanie Conklin, Cieslewicz’s communications director and assistant, noted some visitors to Madison are rowdy because they “have no investment in the community.”
Madison residents, she said, “don’t tend to be throwing rocks through windows.”
“It’s our hope that students do feel a citizenship and a protectiveness of Madison,” she said. “No one wants to see riots and injuries from alcohol-fueled behavior. Most students and residents are not going to want to see [Halloween] degenerate into violence.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said it is “definitely true” that non-residents have caused more damage than residents in the last few years.
“Police statistics bear that out,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said no Madison or MATC student got in trouble last year, but the majority of folks were not affiliated with UW-Madison.”
Conklin added Madison students and residents value State Street and don’t want its shops and restaurants to suffer. She noted last Halloween cost the city almost $100,000 in damage.
“We don’t need this kind of national publicity,” Conklin said. “We want people to be able to have fun. This is not what we want our city to be known for.”
She said representatives from Sports Illustrated did not seem aware of the potentially negative impact national attention could draw.
“They weren’t really thinking about it,” she said. “Not being from the town, they didn’t realize the negative effect [of the publicity].”
Verveer said he has worked extensively to prepare Madison for Halloween’s festivities in the past several years.
“It’s been a Madison tradition since the 1970s, with varying degrees of popularity,” he said. “There have been incidents over the years, but nothing like the rioting we’ve experienced in the last two years, with large-scale property damage and the ensuing mayhem and mob mentality.”
University Inn, where female hotel guests flashed the crowds on State Street last year, will not be open to the public this year. Police will use the building for surveillance, Verveer said.
Verveer also said more police officers from Dane County Police, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Madison Police Department will work on Halloween weekend than in years past.
Verveer noted Madison officials have been working with bar and restaurant owners to extend bartime so that drunken revelers don’t pour into the streets at once with nowhere to go.
While Verveer thinks many are overreacting to the Sports Illustrated article and planned visit, he said using the word “anarchy” to describe Halloween in Madison was unfortunate.
“[Halloween] is our version of Mardi Gras,” Verveer said. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, but that was a lot easier for me to say three years ago.”
