It costs about $775 per game to watch the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team from the most expensive new seats at the Kohl Center this season.
The five-year commitment asked for as part of obtaining a first-row spot in courtside ledge seating added this offseason will set buyers back nearly $87,000 per seat over the length of the term.
It’s getting more expensive to sit near the Kohl Center court as Wisconsin tries to generate more revenue for an era in which it’ll share some of it with players.
An opportunity to downsize the width of the arena’s hockey rink to the NHL standard also let Wisconsin replace regular seats with premium areas for both hockey and basketball. There are 188 new premium seats for basketball and 134 for hockey, all carrying a much higher price than what had been available in those spots before.
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Four areas near the floor with ledge seating — a rolling or high-top padded chair behind a counter — and two rows of wider, padded club seats also include access to one of the Kohl Center’s club spaces with all-inclusive food and nonalcoholic beverages and a cash bar. One of them, the Krantz Club, is being constructed on the arena floor level and is expected to be ready in January.
The proximity to the court and the club access is a big ticket for men’s basketball games and escalating in future seasons, according to prices provided by Wisconsin.
A season ticket for the first row of courtside ledge seating costs $9,000 and is scheduled to climb to $13,000 in 2025-26. That’s not including $5,000 toward what’s identified in marketing materials as a tax-deductible “charitable gift” per seat per season.
The second ledge row is $8,000 plus a $4,000 gift. The ticket price is going up to $12,000 next season.
Sideline club seating is priced at $6,000 for the season — climbing to $8,500 in 2025-26 — plus a $2,500 gift.
Over the five-year commitment, the total in tickets and charitable gifts for one seat is $86,983 for ledge row one, $76,908 in row two and $53,143 for the sideline club. If Wisconsin sells them all at full price, those 188 seats will bring in more than $12.7 million in revenue over the five years.
The 378 seats that were removed to make way for the new premium places would have produced around $1.6 million over five years, using this year’s ticket cost and a minimum $300 donation per seat.
Some longtime Badgers men’s basketball season ticket buyers were moved out of seats near the court that they had held since the Kohl Center opened to make way for the new premium spaces.
Season tickets in the Kohl Center lower level cost $558 plus a minimum donation that ranges from $100 to $300 based on the section. With the minimum donation included, that’s an average ticket price of $47.67 at the high end, a far cry from what the new premium spaces cost per game this season: $777.78, $666.67 and $472.22.
Finding new ways of generating revenue is a priority at Wisconsin because of an impending shift in expenses.
The NCAA and major conferences including the Big Ten have agreed to settle antitrust cases stemming from limitations on athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness before 2021. The settlement has received preliminary approval from a federal judge and is scheduled for a final hearing in April.
Wisconsin is preparing for less revenue and more expenses as a result. NCAA distributions will fall by about $2 million per year, athletic director Chris McIntosh said, as the organization pays former athletes in the settlement.
The agreement also clears the way for schools to pay players directly for competing athletically. The pool if the settlement is approved is 22% of average athletic revenues for power conference schools, initially expected to be around $22 million in the 2025-26 school year but recently estimated at $20.5 million.
McIntosh said there will be 80 to 100 fewer Badgers athletes because of roster limits that will replace scholarship caps as a result of the settlement. Wisconsin plans to tighten some expenses while looking for ways to increase revenue.
More ticket revenue appears to be part of the strategy. Ticket prices went up this season for the Badgers’ two most successful women’s sports, volleyball and hockey. Wisconsin officials projected $35.4 million in revenue from ticket sales in the 2024-25 season, a 2.7% increase from the 2023-24 total.
Men’s hockey also is part of the new premium seating at the Kohl Center but has fewer new premium seats because the rink is larger than the basketball court.
The 96 padded rinkside club seats in the newly created first two rows of Sections 109, 110, 120 and 121 are priced at $1,750 for a half season. (Wisconsin sells two men’s hockey season tickets, one for the first game of a series and one for the second game.)
There are 38 ledge seats available along the glass in Sections 106, 107, 123 and 124 for a half-season price of $2,000. Both the rinkside club seats and the ledge seats include the same food and beverage perks given for men’s basketball buyers.
General public men’s hockey half-season tickets cost $240 or $220. Some sections have minimum donations of $50 or $25 associated with purchases.
