University of Wisconsin students can now disregard football-ticket lines at the Kohl Center in favor of a “first-come, first-served” ticket policy.

Last semester, the UW Athletic Department decided lengthy outdoor ticket lines in which students would wait for days, taking shifts for group seating at a single game, provided overbearing, substantiating grounds for a new ticket policy.

To determine a new policy, the athletic department let last season’s football-ticket holders choose between two options in April.

Ticket holders were surveyed online to choose either a policy where student fans would wait once to receive a single-seat designation for the season, or bring their vouchers to Camp Randall stadium to be allocated seating as they arrive on game day.

When the results were compiled, 58 percent — with 2,443 students voting for a one-time pickup and 3,402 for game-day allocation — were in favor of the first-come, first-served policy, which then became the official method of ticket distribution.

Under the first-come, first-served ticket policy, students will be encouraged to get to games early, bypassing the many pregame parties en route to the stadium.

While UW Associate Athletic Director Steve Malchow maintains the change was primarily made to end lengthy ticket lines, he said the UW pregame party culture also played a role in the decision.

“We needed to change that culture and we have,” he said of pregame drinking. “We had to get away from that.”

Malchow added the “fairness” of the new program is an added bonus to eliminating days-long lines at the Kohl Center.

“One of the side benefits is, yes, those who get here early will get the best seats. It’s a side benefit of the program.”

UW sophomore Erik Ziegler, who holds tickets for the upcoming season and held tickets last season, said the new program is fair to most fans, but unfortunate for pregame partiers.

“It will be nice not having to stand in line days before the game, but having to leave for the game early when there’s obviously things to do before game will be a negative thing, I think,” he said. “I have a feeling I’m just going to be on Breese [Terrace] and sitting in a very crappy section. I will have to settle, but I’m not giving up pre-gaming for Section O … because O sucks.”

Following the new protocol, student-ticket holders will take their vouchers — one allocated for each home game of the season — directly to Gate 5, formerly Gate 12, at Camp Randall and be assigned seating as they enter.

The gates will officially open 90 minutes before kickoff, and students will wait in line to exchange their vouchers for ticket stubs one by one.

As long as there is open seating, students will be able to choose the section, but not specific rows or seats, in which they want to view the game.

Those wishing to be seated with friends have to wait in line with them.

For more popular games with greater competition for seating, students will be allowed to wait in a “queuing area” outside of Gate 5.

Beginning at 8 a.m. on Mondays before home games, the queuing area will be set up for the “more serious” fan base.

As students queue for game day, they will receive numbered wristbands to verify the order in which they arrived.

While unable to bring “camping items,” such as tents, blankets or chairs, students will be able to bring sealed food and non-alcoholic beverages into the area.

“We’re ramped up and ready to go,” Malchow said. “[But] I’m sure it will be an evolving process.”