<p>WISCONSIN</a> STATE JOURNAL</p>
<p>Sold out in 2 hours and 35 minutes, the fastest sale 'in memory'.</p>
<p>However, there are some tickets reserved for grad students to purchase.</p>
<p>It’s disappointing that UW only allots have as many season tickets to students as there are undergrads. What’s the reason for that? Money, I guess? </p>
<p>Big Ten football is great, but at least at UVA all the students can go to every game – for free.</p>
<p>One goes to the games for the whole experience, not just the on field action. Money does play a role- those alumni are apparently worth enough donations to cater to and they can charge enough for the better seats. I personally would rather let more students go than others, but college sports at the Big Ten level is about more than students cheering for their team, unfortunately. Even eons ago students were relegated to the cheap seats.</p>
<p>Same at LSU. Students have to enter a lottery to get tickets. Shameful! Football games are for the students! Know so many alums with season tickets, though. Guess that’s a big money maker.</p>
<p>The school’s system for handling tickets is idiotic, even putting aside the question that they don’t have enough tickets for all the students that want:
- Seniors should get guaranteed tickets. Or at least some high priority for upper classmen. They had this last year, but eliminated it. It used to be that all upper classmen got tickets, and only freshmen were in a lotter, which frankly makes a lot of sense.<br>
- If you’re going to have a lottery, why make people waste hours in front of the computer? Son’s girlfriend tried to get on for an hour, and couldnt’ and then had to go a meeting for a job. By the time she got back, they were sold out. So having a job or a class to go to put you at a disadvantage.
- No one should miss out more than once. My son will only end up going to games 2 or his 4 years at Madison. Ridiculous. </p>
<p>Fortunately, Madison is great in just about every other way.</p>
<p>He can go to just about any game he wants–usually for face value or less. 100’s of students sell their tickets for every game. The student section is rarely really full.</p>
<p>Barrons: If only that were true. Tickets to the games against the good Big Ten opponents tend to sell for $80 to $100 per game. My kid’s no fool and he couldn’t get tickets to an important game any cheaper. Perhaps if the Badgers have a done year or two they will drop in value, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen!</p>
<p>The home games this coming season are nearly all second-rate. No problem going to most games.</p>
<p>There is life outside of football. Not everyone on campus cares about it. There are plenty of people to watch the home games with in the dorms and elsewhere, and the “school spirit” aspect is available outside the stadium so that wouldn’t be missed. For those who care about the actual onfield action the tv view will be much better. For those who want to cheer the team with friends, there are plenty of those who also didn’t get tickets. Eons ago I had season tickets as a freshman and frankly found a lot of boring time in between plays- the best part, which may not even occur anymore, was the sousaphones marching around the perimeter of the field. Attending one or two games in person is worth the effort, watching and commenting with friends in front of a dorm tv is also fun. </p>
<p>There is never a fair/best way to allocate tickets. Some past years have given priority to upperclassmen, but this may have given some years of tickets instead of giving more freshmen the chance. It could be worse- the Packers have more people on their waiting list than seats in the stadium- people keep them in the family for generations.</p>
<p>My son is going to be a junior and he was lucky to get tickets for the upcoming season. He did not have such tickets for his freshman/sophomore years. Many of his friends couldn’t get tickets this year … even though they were good, punctual soldiers in front of their computer screens.</p>
<p>I agree with the earlier poster … upperclassmen should be guaranteed seats or at least have great preference. It seems that a kid could go through four years at Madison and never score a season pass. I am the least enthusiastic sports person on this planet, but my son is an ace spectator and not having seats in past years was a big disappointment. I can imagine how bummed he would have been if he hadn’t get them for the upcoming season</p>
<p>So though I am grateful that my son has seats, I am sad for his friends and I hope they get a chance in their senior year.</p>
<p>Wis75 you’re totally missing the point. That YOU don’t care about going to games and that YOU think it’s just as much fun to hang out in dorms and watch the games doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t enough tickets available to students who WANT to go to the games. Otherwise you wouldn’t have a lottery. And I for one think it stinks.</p>
<p>At a minimum, every undergraduate student should have the first opportunity to get tickets – season tickets or not, cheap seats or not – before ticket sales are open to the general public.</p>
<p>No, the point is that it won’t make or break a student’s college experience to not get tickets as there are plenty of avid fans stuck in front of a tv instead of at the game. A good time can be had on game Saturdays whether or not one has tickets- by emphasizing this I’m trying to help make that lemonade of of those lemons. In a perfect world all students wanting them would have the side, not end zone, seats. Doubt that will ever happen, though.</p>
<p>Parent2009: I don’t always agree with wis75 either, but, why are you on the UW-Madison message board, stirring things up when your daughter is now committed to UVA?</p>
<p>I’m not stirring things up, merely commenting that in my view students should come first when it comes to seats at sporting events and that it’s dismissive to suggest, as Wis75 has, that they just need to get over it. Even Notre Dame students (including all graduates students) are guaranteed tickets to football games – they just have to pay for them. I don’t understand why Wisconsin doesn’t take a similar approach; it sends the message that students either don’t come first or that UW simply has too many students to handle. I think it’s important to identify real life problems such as this, directly resulting from the sheer size of the school, for students and parents to take into account when considering whether to attend.</p>
<p>I also didn’t know that this forum was restricted to students and parents attending or committed to UW-Madison.</p>
<p>Students do need to “get over it” and realize UW is fantastic even without (some would say despite) attending football games- that is not the defining feature of campus life. Yes, many of us wish students got more tickets but we realize that won’t happen. There are too many students currently interested in football, but it isn’t worth increasing the size of the stadium or spending a lot of effort campaigning for changes- there are many more important things to consider. Football is not an example of putting students first- there are many more important issues. I would be leery of schools where football rules campus life. The large size means more, and more interesting, courses offered and many events and activities not found on small campuses. </p>
<p>No restrictions on who posts, but complaining about how things are done when one no longer has any connections does nothing except show sour grapes- an effort to make the choice made seem better, perhaps? We could all go to other schools’ sites and make adverse comments- but why bother? Move on.</p>
<p>Wis75, you are unbelievable. I’d say it’s up to the students themselves to decide what’s important to campus life – not for a graduate from 30+ years ago to decide it for them. As for sour grapes, my daughter got IN to Madison, remember? She chose to go elsewhere. And if your “my way or the highway” attitude is representative of UW graduates, then I’m very glad she did.</p>
<p>I think Parent2009 should be more concerned with UVa’s spotty academics and crumbling finances.
Of course it’s easy to get tickets to the football games–they have not won anything major in my memory and have to share the state with VaTech which has.</p>
<p><a href=“http://media.gatewayva.com/cdp/pdf/WAG_Report.pdf[/url]”>http://media.gatewayva.com/cdp/pdf/WAG_Report.pdf</a></p>
<p>[State</a> of the University Effects of the Economy on the University and the Endowment, Budget Impact, U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/budgetimpact/sou.html]State”>http://www.virginia.edu/budgetimpact/sou.html)</p>
<p>Wow barrons…spotty academics? UVA? Are you now saying that UW-Madison has better academics than UVA? I think that is a leap. A better football program … yes…a better academic reputation…no. Let’s be honest here…no matter what blog this is…</p>
<p>Too funny - I got a private message warning me to expect barrons to follow up on wis75’s personal attack with one of his own (“barrons and wis75, two alumni who apparently haven’t been able to ‘move on’ from their college days long l-o-n-g ago, seem obsessed with stalking the UW Madison forum and attacking anyone who dares say anything even slightly negative about their alma mater”). </p>
<p>Watch out, barrons! You’re becoming predictable!</p>
<p>Seriously, I’m not about to knock UW’s academics, which are outstanding - and barron’s efforts to knock UVa’s, especially at the undergraduate level, in the face of all the evidence to the contrary is too silly to merit a response. </p>
<p>And Tech students don’t have nearly the trouble that UW students do when it comes to getting football tickets . . .</p>
<p>2009 you are also in danger of a reputation. You just don’t get it. I use my past and present knowledge- son student there. I also live instate and have a feel for UW’s context in the state. Some things change over the years but also many things do not- I “sift and winnow” (see the entire message on a plaque somewhere on campus) - ie compare and contrast. I am not stuck in a bygone era, I make use of knowledge current students haven’t had time to learn and I peruse the UW website. Also be aware of the diversity of personal experiences students have at UW- life there does not revolve around football for everyone. Some (many?) are busy doing an activity instead of passively watching football on a Saturday afternoon. </p>
<p>One thing I try to do is to combat stereotypes so that students are aware that they don’t need to be one of the majority to be comfortable at UW. Many come from HS feeling college will be like the conformity of HS, with popular/in crowds et al. When statements make it seem as though certain mores are needed to fit in I play “devil’s advocate” or otherwise remind students that they don’t need to fit the mold suggested. I have used the “blind men and the elephant” story in the past. Think of UW as the blind men described the elephant- many different opinions depending on which aspect was examined. Incoming students read posts here and think UW is as described by those few who bother with this site. I know from experiences of current students that there is a lot more than those views, in fact some views may be of a minority. Also- big message to students- conformity is not needed. Everyone’s UW experience will be different. Barrons views represent yet another attitude and experience. It is good that different ways of viewing UW are represented. Better to have controversy and thinking than uniformity.</p>
<p>Or- never trust anyone over 30? Note - any parent on these forums is expressing their, not their child’s, opinions. How many would echo their parent’s views? How many will understand them in 10 or 20 years when they have a perspective based on more experiences?</p>
<p>Enough philosophizing. Students- there is room for disagreement, and intellectual growth at UW- the main reason to attend.</p>