Badger football games present all sorts of moneymaking opportunities for enterprising folks. Three UW-Madison students, Lisa Speckhard, Fiona Beamish-Crouthamel and Kaitlin Kumbalek, fanned out around Camp Randall on game day to capture some of these stories on video.
It’s Halloween morning, and Bryan Keleny is in front of the Adams Street house where he and his wife, Sally, raised two children many years ago. He now rents the house out, along with the one next door. Located less than a half mile from Camp Randall Stadium, they are moneymakers during football season.
Art by David Michael Miller
5,000 - Pounds of meat consumed per game day (Isthmus estimate based on interviews with Knoche’s Food Market and local bars)
“It’s amazing what a strong team does for this area’s economy,” Keleny says, as he directs about 20 cars, at $20 each, onto the lawns and driveways of the houses he’s owned for decades. “When I started doing this years ago, it was $5 and people would grumble and gripe. But as soon as the team started winning, we went to $10 — and not only were they happy, they’d almost throw the money at us and run to the game.”
The regular season is over and the Badgers have secured a spot in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 30 against USC. But the team does more than just boost school spirits. On Seven Saturdays this fall, the neighborhoods around Camp Randall were awash in both red and green, with 80,000 Badger boosters spending big bucks to enjoy the game experience.
The UW football program has many boldface numbers — multimillion-dollar budget lines for coaches’ salaries, scholarships, ticket sales and TV revenue. But on those weekends when the Badgers play at home, there’s also an ancillary economy that brings millions of dollars down to a very personal and local level.
7,188 - Capacity of game day beer gardens (Madison Fire Department)
The kickoff for today’s game against Rutgers was 11 a.m. In the crowded back room at Lucky’s, the bar closest to the stadium, three fifty-something friends from Joliet High School are swapping stories over beers and burgers as Corey Clement breaks through the line for a score. Glen Kitchell and Bob Edwards still live in the Chicago area, but came up to visit their Madison-based buddy. “The game is a good excuse to hang out together,” says Kitchell. “We have such a good time, it’s an annual thing now,” adds Edwards.
Angela Genin, general manager of Lucky’s Bar and Grill, 1421 Regent St., sees firsthand the economic benefits that Badgers home football games bring to the area. Home games account for about 40% of the bar’s annual revenue, she says.
$515,000 - Raised by Madison Rotary South for polio vaccines and local charities since 2006
It isn’t just Lucky’s that benefits. The bar hires about 50 supplemental staff and security per game and spends $4,000 on portable toilets alone each season. There’s also fencing, signage, permits, DJs, grills, ice machines, special equipment — and about 6,000 tall boy cans and 500 pounds of beef and brats. “We have a lot of costs on game days,” she says. “And that’s income for somebody else.”
The Vilas, Regent and Greenbush neighborhoods become a unique economic zone during home games. There are eight bars and restaurants with gameday beer gardens in the immediate area, with a combined capacity of about 7,000.
They’re packed before and after the game — and are pretty crowded even while the game is going on.
“Home games really keep some of these places in business,” says Steve Knoche, the third-generation owner of Knoche’s Food Center, which distributes to about 40 bars and restaurants.
$553,327 - Security (MPD, UWPD, other agencies) per season
Although local tourism officials don’t know how many of Madison’s 7,632 hotel rooms are rented for football weekends, those that are go for a premium — a markup of $70 to $100 per night. That’s why Conor Moran schedules each year’s Wisconsin Book Festival for weekends the Badgers are away.
While the boutique Hotel Red across Regent Street from the stadium often sells out, a Middleton hotel also does well. Because when Wisconsin is at home, another team is visiting. And for the past several years, almost every team stayed at the Marriott West, taking 75 or so of the hotel’s 292 rooms.
“That’s such a large bump that we’re either selling out or coming very close,” says general manager Jim Strom. “Yes, it’s very lucrative for the hotel. But it’s definitely a lot of work, and we have to double our staff.”
30,000 - Cans of beer sold on Regent Street per game day (Isthmus estimate extrapolating from Lucky’s sales)
The hotel also buys more food, as 100 football players eat about the same amount as 175 regular people. And they eat better food — a strict menu prepared by dietitians, spelled out in detail. “These contracts have very specific riders,” Strom says, “almost like a headlining rock band on tour.”
Every home game draws between 12,000 and 13,000 cars to the area, the city estimates. And they all have to be parked somewhere for at least a few hours. But that doesn’t do the Madison Parking Utility any good.
It “may seem counterintuitive,” says interim city parking manager Bill Putnam, but the utility actually loses money on home games, because metered spaces on Regent and Monroe streets are shuttered to ease traffic. And it’s almost a mile from the city’s Lake Street garage to Camp Randall, which, he says is “beyond where people are willing to pay a premium for parking.”
That’s where the property owners in the Vilas and Regent neighborhoods come in.
“Everybody who can park cars does,” says Keleny. “It’s certainly a nice boost, and helps to pay the property taxes.” A big season can even pay a year’s mortgage.
Real estate agents think that’s a selling point. “When we bought our house, game day parking was included in the listing,” recalls Jenni Collins, head of the Madison Public Library Foundation, who lives on Garfield Street. The family parked cars on its property for one season — and then invested the proceeds into landscaping.
Lauren Justice
$30,000 - Private parking venue per game day, Vilas/Regent neighborhoods (Isthmus estimate based on survey of neighborhoods)
Perhaps the largest private parking lot in the area is Edgewood High School. It’s a popular alumni tailgate destination, which Edgewood assistant principal Shannon McDonough also offers to opposing schools as a central location. The school parks about 275 cars per game, with peaks of 400 or so for rivalries like Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern. The revenue adds up to about $40,000 a year, which supports the school’s athletic and fine arts departments.
A few blocks away, at Randall Elementary, the Franklin Randall PTO parks about 150 cars — an annual boost of about $25,000, which it spends on a variety of academic, social and cultural activities at the paired schools. “Other school groups are jealous,” says school board member Dean Loumos.
$2,369 - Towing contract, per game
Some commercial establishments convert their free public parking into closed lots that exceed capacity. There are seven parking spaces at the 7-Eleven at the corner of Randall and Regent; on game days, they park 14, at $40 each.
Because some drivers park improperly, Schmidt’s towing company has three separate contracts (including one regulated by state administrative code), accounting for $2,369 per game this season. Owner John Schmidt, who’ll pay his operators time-and-a-half, has nevertheless seen his work decrease as the Badgers have improved on the field. He’ll tow 35 to 40 cars on a game day now, down from 150 years ago. He attributes the drop to better signage, reduced drunkenness and a policy of warning people before towing.
$31,540 - Football newspaper ads, per season (UW-Madison Athletic Department purchases, excluding private business ads)
The football season also supports significant charitable fundraising. The Rotary Club of South Madison has raised more than $515,000 over the last decade for polio vaccine and grants to local nonprofits.
There can even be some unexpected winners, like the fine art jewelry gallery Studio Jewelers, 1306 Regent St., next door to Jordan’s Big 10 Pub. “There are certainly people who don’t want to deal with” the area on game days, says owner Hannah Cook-Wallace. “But we’ve had some very good football Saturdays, even some walk-in business on occasion.” And the pub is no problem: “They’re great neighbors, have everything under control.”
There are, of course, some who lose — at least economically. “We don’t even bother to open,” says Todd Wiehr, whose Stadium Barbers, 1515 Monroe St., is right across from the stadium. The shop sees 15 to 20 customers on a non-football Saturday. Game days are a different story. Finding a place to park their own cars is next to impossible. “And everybody just wants to use the bathroom anyway,” Wiehr says. “It’s just pointless.”
“It doesn’t make me too sad, though,” he adds. “It’s nice to have seven Saturdays off.”
Football Saturdays have become so much a part of the local economy that anything that diminishes attendance is noticed. Genin of Lucky’s Bar says that bad weather will discourage some fans. Such was the case during this year’s final two home games.
“Between the snow and rain on the prior game, we really suffered in sales,” Genin says on Nov. 21, the year’s final home game. “I think the snow in particular because folks didn’t drive down just to hang out.”
And next year, the micro-economy will take another hit. The Badgers will host only six home games at Camp Randall because the season will open with a special game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay against LSU.
Having only six home games — for the first time since 2005 — will mean about a 15% loss of revenue for some merchants and service providers.
“That’s going to hit us hard,” says Genin. “And not only us, but all our workers and suppliers as well.”
