Volleyball players, by the nature of their game, have to be able to read a situation and be quick to move. As it turns out, their fans need to be that way, too — at least at Wisconsin.
Before the Big Ten season had even begun, the Badgers sold out their entire conference season, some matches more than two months in advance. Except for one non-conference match in early September, the Badgers have sold all 6,012 tickets available for each of 15 home matches.
A match with Nebraska that took place Oct. 11 was the first to sell out, back on August 10. The final match of the season, against Rutgers on Nov. 25, sold out on Sept. 14, according to assistant ticket director Marques Tyler.
Usually, high demand would be a good thing. In the case of Badgers volleyball, there’s frustration from fans who got shut out of tickets and know the upper deck of the UW Field House sits empty because it’s not up to safety codes.
“People had to get their tickets early, which is awesome, and the sellouts are amazing,” says Badgers senior Kelli Bates. “But turning people away when they want to come watch you play is really sad.”
There are Badgers volleyball tickets listed on StubHub, an online ticket exchange site. General admission tickets on StubHub start at $45 and top out at $65 for the Badgers’ Black Friday match against Penn State. The original retail price? Five dollars.
The bad news: Specific budget decisions won’t be made until the spring. The good news: Athletic department staff isn’t waiting to deal with the Field House issue until then.
“We’re having conversations about that right now,” says Terry Gawlik, senior associate athletic director at UW-Madison.
The upper deck needs railings and also requires the gaps between the rows to be closed. The seating arrangement is up for debate, Gawlik says. There are discussions about where to put reserved seats and where to put general admission, she says, if it’s not just a matter of simply making lower level reserved and upper level general admission.
“And now with the new video board, there are obstructed views in the Field House that weren’t there before,” she says.
None of the changes would be realized this year.
One option not on the table: moving to the larger Kohl Center. When that facility opened in 1998, volleyball stayed in the Field House to avoid conflicts with basketball and because volleyball’s court dimensions were better suited to the smaller Field House. A volleyball court is 59 feet by 29 feet 6 inches; a basketball court is 94 by 50.
“There are places we go and we play in basketball arenas and those place are just cavernous. It doesn’t even come close to the same energy [in the Field House],” says Badgers coach Kelly Sheffield. “The fans are right on top of the action — it’s really loud when you’re down there on the court. They’d have to pay me a lot of money for me to say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the Kohl Center.’”
