Wisconsin men’s basketball sees booming season ticket interest despite increased prices

MADISON — The on-court results for Wisconsin men’s basketball have been among the best in the Big Ten.

In the last 15 years, the Badgers have gone 182-102 (.641) in Big Ten games. In the last 10 years — the 10 with Greg Gard as head coach — the Badgers have gone 117-77 (.603).

Those numbers have translated to impressive season ticket numbers for the Badgers ahead of the 2025-26 season.

New season ticket sales have spiked from 151 in 2024-25 to currently 609 before this. That’s all while 93% of existing season ticket holders have renewed for 2025-26 — an increase from the previous season.

UW deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta projects the Badgers to have more season ticket holders than the previous season for the first time in four years and reach a record level of ticket revenue.

“That all comes on the backdrop also of what was a pretty public repricing of the Kohl Center,” Pinta told the Journal Sentinel.

Wisconsin announced in June a two-year plan to increase ticket prices for 65% of its season ticket locations while other areas are either remaining the same or decreasing in price. Tickets at center court in the Kohl Center’s lower bowl, for example, are increasing from a total cost of $858 in 2024-25 (including the minimum per seat contribution) to $1,002 in 2025-26 and $1,252 in 2026-27.

“We’re able to more accurately price a building that we hadn’t changed in a really long, long time and still drive new season ticket sales, drive increased renewals,” Pinta said. “And that just speaks to the excitement, the momentum they have for hoops this season.”

The new price structure at the Kohl Center also allows Wisconsin to focus on the “creation of new products and new inventory” when it comes to ticket sales.

“Whether that be the reduction of the cost of certain seats up in the 300 level, whether that be the creation of mini packs,” Pinta said. “Once the schedule comes out, we look at all of our games and where they fall, whether it be a weekend game or a winter break game. There’s obviously more opportunity for families to bring their children to a weekend game or winter break game than there is a Tuesday night at 8 p.m. as well. So those are other factors that we look at when we start creating all these different products.”

As is the case for any sport on campus, Wisconsin’s ability to raise prices is only so effective without a high-quality product on the court.

“If you don’t have a competitive product on the court and people aren’t interested, that impacts the secondary market, that impacts a lot of different things and it doesn’t allow you to create these new products or price in a way that generates revenue for the department,” Pinta said. “That revenue that you generate goes right back into the department and helps you invest in rosters and facilities and all these other great things.”

‘Pretty nominal’ increase in student ticket prices

Student tickets went on sale Sept. 24 and sold out in a mere 10 minutes. That’s despite having slightly more expensive prices than in past seasons — from $140 for 14 games in 2024-25 to $156 for 13 games in 2025-26. Pinta described the increase as “pretty nominal.”

“We haven’t increased prices since 2008, when I was in college,” said Pinta, a UW alum who returned to Madison in 2022 after 14 years working at the NFL. “They’ve been $10 per game. They are now going to be $12 per game.”

While prices have stayed flat for more than a decade, student interest in games has remained high. UW has sold out its men’s basketball student tickets in 12 consecutive seasons and 20 of the last 23 seasons.

“We’ve been pretty consistent in looking at the market data, looking at scan rates, looking at attendance,” Pinta said. “We’ve continued to have extremely high demand in men’s basketball tickets, and there’s a fixed supply obviously.”

Pinta is cognizant as well of the importance of having accessibly priced student tickets.

“We still also want to make sure that, just like with football student tickets, we’re giving our students a significant discount on lower-level tickets,” Pinta said. “And that’s what this accomplishes.”

Even after the price increase, Wisconsin’s student tickets are cheaper than those at Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan and Illinois. (That’s all while UW has a better Big Ten winning percentage than Indiana, Michigan and Illinois in the last 10 years and the last 15 years.)

“Where we fall within the Big Ten is one of the factors we look at,” Pinta said. “We were fifth in pricing, and this would still keep us at fifth in pricing in the Big Ten.”

The student section continues to be entirely on the south end of the arena in the first, second and third levels. It is a common student section configuration across the country, although peers such as Purdue and Marquette have students seated near both baselines. Michigan State has its students seated around the entire circumference of the court.

“We get the question a lot of, ‘Look at what some other schools are doing — where they place the students,’” Pinta said. “We feel for us — the overall building and the overall demand that we have for these really quality seats within the Kohl Center — the way it’s designed works really, really well.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin basketball sees booming ticket interest despite higher price