A typical Badger home game experience includes walking with throngs of people through the Camp Randall arch, singing “Varsity” with thousands of other Badger fans, and shaking the stadium during “Jump Around.”
But this year’s sudden enforcement of an assigned seating policy is leading to more students being ejected from one of their most anticipated traditions.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department and officials are enforcing the policy of sitting in assigned seats in the student section at Badger football games more this year despite the traditional first-come-first-serve method of seating most students currently follow.
While the student section seating policy is not new, Assistant Athletic Director Justin Doherty said the Athletics Department is placing a greater emphasis this year on enforcing the policy due to complaints from students who have not been able to sit in their designated seats.
But UW-Madison junior Stephanie Covelli said this policy is not understood by the entire Camp Randall staff.
At the Wisconsin v. Illinois game, Covelli said Camp Randall security officers directed her, her younger brother and his two friends to seats which did not match their tickets.
“We didn’t know if they were exactly the right seats,” Covelli said. “They checked [our tickets] at the section.”
She said with thirty seconds left before “Jump Around” at the end of the third quarter, UW-Madison Police Department officers who were monitoring overcrowded rows approached her and her friends, demanding to see their tickets and IDs.
The officers “yelled” and “screamed” in their faces before ejecting them from the stadium, according to Covelli.
“Everything happened so quickly,” Covelli said. “It was so nerve-wracking.”
UWPD Sgt. Aaron Chapin said officers will check tickets in sections that appear overcrowded.
“If you’re not in that seat, you have the potential to be kicked out,” Chapin said.
But according to a UW-Madison senior, who wished to remain anonymous, avoiding the overcrowded seating lead to her being ejected from the game.
She said police ejected her after she was unable to sit in her designated section because it was filled upon her arrival to the game.
“I’m a paying customer, and I want to get a seat,” she said. “There should be enough room for all the students who pay.”
Doherty said enforcing the seating policy is not meant to detract from the Badger home game experience.
“We want people to be able to sit with their friends,” Doherty said. “There’s no effort to be heavy-handed.”
Police ejected 86 students from the Oct. 6 game in total, arresting 17 and citing 17, according to the UWPD. Police also reported 100 student section seating issues, such as students sitting in the wrong section and overcrowding bleachers.
