The nights are getting colder and longer, but many students are finding more time to spend outside. Ticket turmoil is in full swing for men’s basketball, football and hockey tickets as the lines grow outside of the Kohl Center box office.
University of Wisconsin sophomore Heidi Hackbarth stood in line waiting for football tickets Sunday night at the Kohl Center. To counter the plummeting autumn temperatures, Hackbarth and a friend brought blankets to keep warm during their stay.
Unfortunately for her, sometime around 4 a.m. Monday, Hackbarth said UW police addressed the hockey and football lines and told students to take their blankets and sleeping bags home. If students did not adhere to these rules, the police said they would ticket students $180, citing them for camping on state property.
The police returned an hour later to check the lines, Hackbarth said.
“They told people at front of the line that they could have given us citations right then and there, but that they were going to be nice about it,” Hackbarth said. “They told us we should have read the [rules] and been aware of them.”
Hackbarth had to take her blankets home and pile on another layer of clothes before hitting the line again. Hackbarth admitted she was upset because she did not know blankets were prohibited.
“Everyone in the football line was just under impression we could have blankets, not sleeping bags,” Hackbarth clarified.
UW Athletics has published the rules and conduct on line standing on their website, stating students may only bring a folding chair.
The list of prohibited items, however, extends much longer than those allowed. Items not permitted include tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, kerosene lamps, couches, tables, non-folding chairs, television sets, non-portable CD players and gaming equipment.
In addition to the folding chairs, students are allowed to sleep while waiting in line. The police will be monitoring the student activity.
“The university doesn’t run a campground at the Kohl Center,” UWPD Capt. Brian Bridges said. “The same rules about camping at Picnic Point or the Arboretum apply to standing in line.”
Bridges said camping is a problem across campus. It can affect health and academics for students, especially if they camp out weeks in advance for men’s hockey and basketball tickets. There are no public restrooms either, he added.
Receiving a citation in the line means a student will forfeit his place in line.
“We don’t want people to camp,” Bridges said. “We want people to know that, and we’re giving them as many opportunities as we can to know that.”
After a certain period of time, however, this “educational phase” for line conduct will expire, Bridges warned.
The police will only enforce the rules for a short period of time. From then on, students are responsible for knowing the rules and adhering to them, Bridges said.
Some students say the rules are disappointing, especially because they desire to see a university function.
“You’d think the university wouldn’t be so strict on it because we’re standing in line for a UW event, but they were,” Hackbarth said. “We’re not hurting anyone; we’re just sitting there and people are going to do it regardless of the blanket rules.”
Unlike the football line, students waiting for hockey tickets were explicitly told the exact rules, possibly because they have been waiting longer, and the box office will not start to distribute the season tickets until Oct. 1. One out of the four people in a hockey ticket group was given the standing-in-line rules and regulations, Bridges said.
Many of the students bridged the gap of the different strata of sports fans, as fans in the hockey line came to football line for blankets, Hackbarth said.
