The University of Wisconsin athletic department began contacting basketball season ticket holders last week to announce that renovations to the Kohl Center will displace some of them from their courtside seats unless they invest in new premium seating.
As reported by the Kenosha News, ticket customers shared with Lee Newspapers emails and other communications in which Wisconsin informed some fans with men’s basketball seats in the lower level that their location won’t be available at past price points starting with the upcoming 2024-25 season.
According to Todd Milewski of the News, Wisconsin is using a project to narrow the hockey rink from 97 feet wide to the NHL standard 85 feet to change rows of seats near the playing surface into premium seating areas. Senior associate athletic director Jason King said the new areas will be like the ledge seats installed in 2022 in Camp Randall Stadium’s south end zone, with chairs behind a surface that can hold food and drinks.
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Wisconsin’s email last Tuesday said new seats for affected patrons who don’t want to pay for the premium space will be assigned based on the buyer’s lifetime giving amount to the athletic department as of the end of May. Their new seats could be in the 100, 200 or 300 levels, meaning someone who once sat near the court could wind up in the arena's uppermost deck.
Lower-level season tickets for men’s basketball games in 2023-24 cost $558 plus a minimum contribution of $300 per seat in the middle three sections, Milewski reported. The new premium seats — which include access to a club space with all-inclusive food and nonalcoholic beverages, as well as a cash bar — start at $6,000 per season for men’s basketball and $1,750 per season for men’s hockey, with the priority going to donors who make additional capital project contributions.
Some season ticket holders now question whether the $2,500 per seat paid when the Kohl Center opened in 1998 was a seat license that entitled them to their location until they decided not to renew, Milewski reported, adding that the one-time payment contributed more than $7 million toward construction of the $76.4 million Kohl Center.
“I thought it was a great deal to get the seats that we got,” said 71-year-old Jerry Metzger, who has had two men’s basketball tickets on the aisle two rows off the floor in mid-court Section 108 since the building opened. In total, Metger has been a UW men's basketball season ticket holder for 40 years, dating back to when the Badgers played in the Wisconsin Field House.
“Between the NIL, the portal, the seeming indifference to the fans by the UW athletic department, maybe it’s just time to pull the plug,” he told the News. “You feel like you’ve exhibited loyalty to the university for a long time and that loyalty is not being reciprocated. But it is what it is.”
