Thanks for the responses.
Below is a link to Buckyville, an independent message board founded in 2007 with a large user base of mostly Wisconsin graduates from all over the state, country, and the world for that matter. Feel free to sign up and post (it’s free). You can ask a question about literally anything and somebody will answer you. The football and basketball boards are the most popular, along with the “Myles Long Bacon Board” which is an ad hoc forum about pretty much anything (except politics). If you sniff around the “tailgate” board you’ll find various threads about game day / Madison activities, but you’ll have to wade through some crap and many of the posts are dated.
An independent community of Wisconsin Badgers.-Discussion Areas-Badger Football-Myles Long Bacon Board-Big Ten Champion Badger Basketball Board-12 National Titles Hockey Forum
www.tapatalk.com
Another tip: the University of Wisconsin is referred to by locals as “UW” not be confused with your friends to the west.
Very cursory overview of Madison:
Downtown Madison is located on an isthmus on a hill between two fairly large lakes (Mendota and Monona). The state Capitol building on “Capitol Square” is modeled after the US Capitol, and is usually open for visitor exploration. State Street is a pedestrian mall (with lanes for buses) which connects the State Capitol with the UW Campus. With a variety of shops, restaurants and bars, State Street is considered the “signature” scene of Madison and a popular place to walk. There are lots of excellent restaurants and bars downtown, depends on what you are looking for, how much you want to spend, and where you are staying.
If you have a chance take a drive around the UW campus it’s considered one of the most scenic in the country. Probably the single most recommended stop in Madison is the Memorial Union, located on Lake Mendota with a popular terrace on the lakefront.
Two other popular Madison spots, the mention of which might get me vilified…there is a pretty large farmers market on Capital Square every Saturday morning, and the Henry Vilas Zoo is one of the best small zoos in the country.
Football/game day notes:
The stadium is on campus, but adjacent to a mostly residential neighborhood. Near the stadium, there aren’t any huge tailgate lots like other schools have, but a lot of smaller ones wedged in wherever possible.
Game day: there are several large bars with outdoor beer gardens along Regent Street east of the stadium. This is where most people who don’t tailgate but want to imbibe go, they will be crowded before and after the game. If you want a more civilized venue, Union South is very close to the stadium, has a fair amount of space (it helps to get there early) with decent food and beverage options, and the Badger and does a pregame concert. It’s a nice scene, fine for kids.
Regarding tickets…a while back we went to “variable” ticket pricing which means that they charge whatever inflated price for single game tickets that they think they can get. For the WSU game, I’m guessing the single game ticket price will be $65-75 (hasn’t been set yet). That amount will be shown as the “face” value of all tickets, but season ticket holders actually pay $54 per ticket for every game (not counting seat license fees applicable to the better sections). Wisconsin will start selling single game tickets to the general public around July (the exact date hasn’t been announced), but you probably don’t want to buy these because they are the leftovers from season ticket sales and therefore mostly lesser quality seats. Instead, go to the usual secondary market sources, if you are patient and halfway saavy, you should be able to procure decent sideline seats for $50-$75 each. If you don’t mind walking up some ramps, the upper deck affords a great view of the field, stick to the first few rows, these seats typically sell for less.
By all means avoid the student sections, and you shouldn’t have any issues. If you buy decent sideline seats you’ll be among season ticket holders whose average age is north of 50. If you happen to walk along Breese Terrace (the street on the west side of the stadium), the drunk students who live in the houses there will chant “ass-hole” at you. If that really offends you, don’t walk down that street.
If you’re interested in golf, other outdoor recreation, or Lambeau, send me a PM, it depends on how much time you have and where you are flying into.
I’m wondering what this is based on. In the last 20 or so years we’ve done lots of “home and home” contracts which included trips to Oregon (2001), West Virginia (2003), Arizona (2004), North Carolina (2005), Fresno State (2008), Oregon State (2012), Arizona State (2013), BYU (2017), and South Florida (2019). A lot people at Fresno told me that large schools east of the rockies never play in Fresno, but we did. We also went to UNLV in 2002, 2007 and 2010.
I don’t know why the 2007 game against WSU in Madison wasn’t a “home and home” contract. We also had a deal to play WSU in 2014 and 2015 with the road game to be played in Seattle. We had to postpone that series to accommodate the Big Ten’s change to 9 conference games, the games slated for 2022 and 2023 are essentially a reschedule of 2014/2015. Anyway, I’ll be surprised if we cancel 2023 in favor of a “buy-in” game. The fans are sick of low quality “buy-in” opponents, and the payoffs the power 5 teams have to cough up for them has been going through the roof.
