I called the UW ticket office to figure out how to get reserve seating. First you purchase your normal tickets at the normal price and then if you "qualify" to be in reserved, they will charge your card the extra money and you will be in the reserved area. The seating is randomly distributed and you cannot choose where you want your seats to be.
What's going to happen is the vast majority of people who used to sit in those sections are going to be booted out of there and forced into areas and then those of areas will have their own regulars booted out by the new people who were displaced.
For what little extra money they're going to make in the big picture they're pissing off a ton of people.
And people like me who sat at the same seats for like 15 years we just get pooped on. I still haven't decided if I'm even going to buy season tickets or not.
It's not unlike what they did with volleyball four (?) years ago, when they designated different sections of the Field House as 'gold, silver, bronze, and red' seating (with some general admission sections, mostly the second level) with different ticket price tiers. Those (like me) who had had tickets that were now 'gold' at the highest price but didn't want to pay the premium could drop down to a less costly tier. That, in turn bumped the people in those seats and sections from their previous seat locations, and so on; a giant game of musical chairs. Even if I had kept my 'gold' seat location - I went down to 'silver' - I would no longer be sitting next to the people I had been sitting with for however many years before, unless they also paid the premium price.
I assume that if this goes well this year - and maybe even if it doesn't - next year the sections on the opposite side of the rink will also be converted to more expensive reserved sections. And that possibility might affect your decision now: say you decide to relocate yourself across the ice, from section 3 to section 15, and get used to sitting there. A year from now, you might very well have the same dilemma: pay more for your adopted section 15 location, or relocate yet again.
One thing that they do with football, basketball, volleyball, and men's hockey that would likely follow to women's hockey next year or in two years, etc: "Badger Select". That's a process through which season ticket holders get the opportunity to choose different seat locations during the off-season, from one year to the next. Based on donor point levels - the higher doner level, the earlier your "Badger Select" opportunity comes. You sign in, see what reserved seat locations might have become available, either through someone not renewing their tickets, or a prior "Select" person choosing to move their location, and decide if you want to claim a new location. So let's say you choose now to get reserved tickets, and get assigned something other than your current row 3 (?) section 3. A year from now, you *might* get the chance to move closer to your preferred location though the "Select" process.
My donor level is so low that by the time my turn has come for volleyball, all the available seats had been claimed, and there was nothing to even go look at or consider, etc.
I can't tell you what to do, of course, and I'm glad I'm not facing with the decision... yet. But again, I'm guessing this only the start.