People passing by the Kohl Center in the past week may have noticed a lot of folding chairs and eager hockey fans. Some UW men's hockey student season ticket holders have been waiting in line since Tuesday, Sept. 19 in hopes of scoring seats that would put them touching the glass in the front row.
Although the UW Athletic Ticket Office will not be officially distributing tickets until 8 a.m. Saturday, groups could begin registering to hold their place in line Tuesday at 5 p.m.
The registration process allows up to four members per group and requires at least one group member to be present at all times prior to ticket distribution on Saturday in order to hold group eligibility. Students are not allowed to ""camp out"" and are only allowed to have one folding chair per person, and absolutely no blankets, tents or lamps.
UW Athletics spokesperson Justin Doherty said the ticket office has yet to run into problems and has not heard that any citations have been handed out.
The tight regulations can create problems for students staying overnight. Veteran season ticket holder and UW-Madison junior Kyle Brown and the rest of his group have been waiting outside of the Kohl Center since Sept 19.
""Nights have been mid 30s to low 40s, cold and damp,"" Brown said of the weather.
According to UW-Madison junior Chelsea Dahmen, who has taken part of this tradition since last year, there was rumor of groups behind her group storming the ticket office to get wristbands as soon as the gates opened at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Prior to group registration Tuesday, UW-Madison junior Eric Phillippi took matters into his own hands by creating a list of the order of student groups that had been waiting. By 4:15 p.m. the day of registration Phillippi had pre-recorded 113 groups. Phillippi said the list was intended ""to keep the integrity of the line."" Students throughout the line, especially near the front, seemed to respond positively to the list.
Student season-ticket holders said they enjoyed the waiting game and looked forward to the actual season.
""I love it—it's like Christmas Eve,"" Brown said. ""And when we get the tickets, it's like Christmas.""
