Kohl Center

We’re here for a basketball game and had a suite provided by an employee. Food and drink and an enjoyable game to watch. The games at the Kohl Center are always a blast. The service in the suite was excellent.

During women’s basketball season, you can find me courtside. It is a great facility! Bathrooms are usually clean and easy to get into. Staff and Volunteer Concessions are friendly. I’ve been here for many different types of sports and concerts. I will keep coming back.
Only thing keeping this from being perfect is the RC cola drinks. Gross. Come on, Badgers! Bite the bullet and get better drink choices. Even the Badger Max Water is not great. It’s water, it shouldn’t taste weird. The drinks do not stop me from attending games but I don’t spend as much on concessions as I used too.

The Kohl Center is a fantastic facility right here in Madison. I have been to many games here, and remember being at one of the first basketball games as a kid when it first opened.
The atmosphere can’t be beat, it’s always clean, and it’s a great place to see a game or concert. There is no bad seat in the Kohl Center, and I can speak as someone who has season men’s basketball tickets in the last row of the upper 300 level. It’s centrally located downtown, within walking distance of campus, state street, as well as many restaurants and bars.
Parking isn’t a problem if you know where to go. Pay $ 5 to park at the State Street Ramp, try to find street parking if you can, or park a little further away at The Overture Parking Ramp and you can get out faster for a packed game.
Check out Dotty’s for drinks and burgers before or after a game, but be prepared to wait a little as it gets packed. There’s also Nitty, Vintage or Ians for a quick slice of pizza. Our go to favorite is the Red Shed for a few drinks before heading to the game. But, with the Kohl Center’s location you have so many options around the area.
A family friendly facility, and a must stop for a game if your in town.

Greatest Arena in the State of Wisconsin quite possibly the Best in College Sports and every game’s always a sellout and it’s a small Arena and Loud as Hell so keep up the Good work Badgers and Bring home a National Championship this yr.

Came to see the last men’s hockey game of the season. Was not sure what to expect… but this place is very nice and clean. All the seats are good… there is really no bad views… If I had to choose one… it would be the nose bleed area… but even up there, you can see everything.

Very family friendly sports area

UW Men’s Hockey!
I’m not even a UW student or alum, but I love the atmosphere of this place during a hockey game. The students are really rowdy and that chants are a mix of hilarious and incensing.
Surprisingly, the place almost never seems dirty, even near the end of a game. The bathrooms always seem relatively clean, too, which is really surprising.
The food is decent for a sports arena, if overpriced (hey, you’re captive at the game, what are you gonna do?).
Considering the price of a hockey game here, it’s a reasonably inexpensive and very fun way to kill an evening.

This is absolutely an amazing place to watch an amazing basketball program. You walk in and see all the red and all you can do is smile. Amazing place.

Nickel and dime you. Water $ 4.00 for 20oz bottle. Don’t allow you to bring in your own empty water container. No re-​entry for an all day high school event forces you to eat what they serve at their prices. What about those financially stressed that want to support their kids. WIAA please find another location every high school family can afford to watch state finals and not have to spend an arm and a leg to watch their state qualified high school wrestlers compete.

Home to the Badger’s hockey and basketball team, this place is nice and clean, fairly easy to find, and has some nice displays, too.
I haven’t been here for a basketball game, but I have been here for plenty of hockey games. The tickets are always a good value for the kinds of seats you can get. From my 10+ different experiences here the bathrooms are cleaner than what you’d expect and the seating area is usually pretty clean – no sticky floors here!
There’s plenty of concession areas, including separate areas for hotdogs/​nachos/​pretzels/​etc. and areas for sweets. This is, however, a dry stadium so don’t expect to find any alcohol being sold.
There’s plenty of entrances around the building, which helps to avoid the pushing and general impatience that happens when you go to sporting events at other places. Ample parking all around, you can park on the street or in a parking garage nearby. Most of the time the parking garages all cost the same amount and most are nice and toasty during the wintertime.
Now go cheer on the Badgers!

Came here to see a Wisconsin hockey game with some friends who live up this way. It was a super clean arena (let’s face it, I’ve been in some nasty arenas!) and your feet didn’t stick to the floors! Awesome turnaround time too as there was a Wisconsin/​Michigan basketball game earlier in the day, and we arrived at 6:30 for the hockey game. Of course, the ice was softer than normal (poor kids were sliding EVERYWHERE!), but that’s to be expected with a full house basketball game earlier that day. Consessions were decently priced, and everyone was friendly.

Attended my first ever Badger hockey game on Fri night and loved it. Loved this cute stadium and all of the traditions but if I’m writing a critique (and I think I am) — I’m removing a star for the parking situation. It’s bad. And expensive. And pricey. And downright confusing, especially for out-​of-​staters. But I did like the family feel of the Kohl Center and the variety of concessions and the souvenir shop. Everyone was friendly and the lines, while maybe long, were running quickly. I do wish we could have had a few beers, though. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and hope to be back.

It’s hard not to be sentimental about the Kohl Center — I love going to hockey games, I love how awesome the atmosphere is when it’s full and the band is going nuts and I love the Badgers.
But the building itself — can kind of be a pain in the butt. I mean, it’s not really any better or worse than any other big stadium I’ve been too, but it does have its quirks.
If I’m being nitpicky, for non-​students, the parking situation is atrocious. There are inexplicable railings in the 300 level that pretty much block my whole view while sitting down, making me think no one actually USED the seats before they finished the whole thing off. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason as to where the restrooms are put (sometimes I can pass two or three men’s rooms before finding the ladies room), the sensors on the sinks in the restroom NEVER work, the placement of some of the concessions lead to serious concourse traffic jams and the cement stairs are kind of treacherous in the winter months.
But the atmosphere always more than makes up for those things and you don’t really notice them, so there’s that.

Until the University of Wisconsin can convince the band director to retire, the Kohl Center will continue to decline as an exciting and intimidating place to watch Big Ten basketball. I have probably attended 99% of the men’s games played at Kohl Center, and there has been a steady and rapid decline in atmosphere over the past three seasons. Every single game, and I mean EVERY SINGLE GAME, the game day routine is exactly the same. Half the student seats are empty for at least 75% of the games, probably because they are sick of being forced to do the Time Warp dance again, and again and again. If I have to watch Space Wisconsin played at the under-​8 timeout in the second half and kill any life in the building during big game, I might just have to become a Marquette fan.
Fun and excitement are currently dead at Kohl Center.

Showin’ my school spirit!
Cause that’s how I roll.
And this is the place to do it. Beautiful facility. Smaller than you may imagine but full of Badger pride!

Despite the size of the Kohl Center it is a great environment to watch some Big 10 basketball! It is on the bigger end of basketball arenas for the Big 10 conference. It is number 3 in size behind Ohio State and Indiana.
The students are into the game which is nice to see. There are even decent views of the court from the high up sections.

Even though it doesn’t have the old fashioned charm of the Field House, The Kohl Center is a fantastic place to watch a Sporting event. I have been here for several things and have had a great time every time! The Wheelchair seating is fantastic and I love the fact that they have options at all price points. The staff is always friendly and helpful, too. The food options are the best I’ve had at any College Venue. I always save room for an Ice Cream Cone from The Sweet Shoppe!

Great place for college sports.

I love this place, state-​of-​the-​art and home to a lot of the sports of UW-​Madison. It has great spacious seats, lots of places to eat and grab some beer, and lots of bathrooms. The downsides is that it could be a bit (population wise) bigger. It seems like it doesn’t hold that many people but maybe it is the design. The flooring itself is quite interesting I have found as it is an ice arena that is maintained year round even when basketball is played on top of it!

Of course I love the Badgers, but we’re talking about the venue here people.
Walking into the Kohl Center is like walking into an NBA arena. Its great in that it’s basically brand new (1998) but it most definitely lacks that «college basketball arena» feel. The place seats 17,190 people (just ~1,000 less than the Bucks at the Bradley Center) for Buckys sake!
Now let’s talk about the placement of the student section, another important feature of college venues. Pretty bad in my opinion. Of course a place built in the late 90’s and primarily funded by donations (named after US senator Herb Kohl who donated $ 25 mil of his own cash) more than likely isn’t going to put student placement first. You’ve got to have your rich alumni sitting lengthwise along the court and also have tons of luxury boxes. Surprisingly to me (as far as the building structure itself), the Kohl Center is considered one of the most raucous home courts in the Big Ten and in all of college basketball and boasted a 38 game home winning streak in 2001 (no doubt thanks to whiskey-​filled student section and upper deck).
However, of course the place gets loud, has new top notch equipment for the prospective and current athletes, and has a really cool blown glass decoration as you walk in the main gate. If you can get suite tickets, do it. Its all you can drink bottled beer and food (chicken fingers, pizza, variety of dips, chips, and veggies.
After visiting games at older stadiums (Illinois, Duke, Northwestern) I can only imagine seeing a Badger hoops game (I’ve seen other events) at the old Field House.