UW Men's Basketball vs. Edgewood College.

In the first meeting between the Edgewood College Eagles and neighboring Wisconsin Badger Men’s Basketball Teams, many Eagles fans were unable to attend the game at the Kohl Center.

Due to a lack of tickets available to students, and the price being too high for some, the Office of Student Activities came up with an alternative plan.

On game day, Edgewood ran a continuous shuttle between campus and Lucky’s Bar and Grille, starting at 6:30 and ending at 9:30. The event was open to Edgewood student 18 and up, and a student had to be over 21 to drink.

While the event was held at Lucky’s, it wasn’t the first choice for OSA’s Director of Student Activities, Beth John. “Our goal was to have it on campus. We wanted to hold it in the Anderson Auditorium.” However, his wasn’t possible as the Big Ten Network is only available on the Dish Network. As she explained, “there was a bunch of red tape,” as it wasn’t possible for Edgewood to set it up once they had reached the company.

So just how did Lucky’s come into the picture? John asked Men’s basketball coach Todd Adrian for his advice, and he connected her with the owner of Lucky’s. Once that was set up, everything seemed to fall in place. Students that rode the shuttle had to sign an alcohol waiver and were held accountable by the Student Code of Conduct for their behavior off campus. The turn out at Lucky’s was predicted to be good. “We’ll see, it should be fun. We just want everyone to have a good time” said John.

When it came to there being enough tickets for students, John was quick to explain. “The UW has a standard contract for opponents. We had 64 tickets given to the school to sell. We set aside 32 to alumni, and 32 to students. We wanted alumni and students to have the opportunity to attend and build relationships.” Tickets were then given to players for their parents and families, and the rest were for Edgewood students.

OSA decided to give a week notice as John first mentioned it in her weekly activities email sent out to students at Edgewood, stating that “Tickets go on sale Monday October 29th at 9 am.” The email also mentioned tickets were only available to students with an Edgewood College ID.OSA then followed up with posters around campus, as well as other emails to let students know the tickets were available. While many students may have felt the ticket price was too high, they were face value. As for only one ticket per student, John felt that way “it would be open to Edgewood students and someone wouldn’t buy two tickets for them and a friend who attended a different school.” No staff were allowed to buy a ticket until the new bunch of 14 tickets became available on October 31st. As game day approached, John sent out emails from staff who may have tickets available as well. In a follow up email, John also sent out email links to different websites where students may be able to find tickets.

On game day, there was definitely a plentiful amount of empty seats in the Kohl Center. Outside there was a group of people trying to scalp their tickets. When asked, many students got their tickets from friends at the UW, or through family friends. John said if the two teams were to play again, “it’d be on campus. We’d love to pack the Anderson Auditorium, it’d be fun.”

To check out upcoming events at Edgewood College, check out MyEdgewood, services, and student events. CAB, Res Life, and other student organizations keep an up to date agenda for future events held on campus.