Sure, Nebraska’s volleyball team is making headlines for playing at Wrigley Field in September, but the Milwaukee Bucks are hosting the Badgers and last year’s entire Final Four in a 10-team volleyball takeover before the Huskers even hit the dirt in Chicago.
The move to showcase the sport on a massive stage isn’t just a trend — it’s been the subject of ongoing discussions on WIZM that include the Brewers president and the University of Wisconsin athletic director, among others.
While the Huskers’ trip to the “Friendly Confines” is a one-off event during the MLB season, the Badgers are spearheading a permanent shift toward major venues.
The showcase (Aug. 21-24) will bring the nation’s top programs to Milwaukee, including:
- Wisconsin (2025 Final Four)
- Texas A&M (2025 National Champion)
- Kentucky (2025 Final Four)
- Pittsburgh (2025 Final Four)
- Louisville, Texas, Arizona State, SMU, plus Marquette and Xavier.
UW Athletic Director Chris McIntosh was asked on the Rick Solem Show about having a bigger venue to bring in more revenue for teams like Badgers volleyball that have been to the Final Four five of the past seven seasons.
“We’ve played women’s volleyball in the Kohl Center,” McIntosh said. “We’ve played women’s hockey in the Kohl Center on occasion. The reality is the market for attendance at those, it wouldn’t support playing every game in a facility that large.”
Meanwhile, plans are in the works to utilize the Brewers stadium in much of the same way. Brewers president Rick Schlesinger addressed a lot of these possibilities early last year on WIZM to utilize the stadium — everything from a Badgers basketball game to a video game tournament on the “jumbotron.”
The team is currently moving forward with a $500 million taxpayer-funded renovation package that includes winterizing the stadium — a move that would allow for massive indoor volleyball, basketball or hockey events even in the dead of a Wisconsin winter.
“It’s a great facility that could be hosting softball, baseball, basketball hockey — as I said a lot of different kind of events,” Schlesinger said back in February of 2025. “So, we’re excited to a sort of explore what’s possible. It’s nice to start thinking that we can do these things in a few years, as opposed to it just being unrealistic. Winterization is something we’re really excited about.”
There’s a push now to utilize these taxpayer-funded stadiums to create more revenue. The Brewers and Bucks both got significant funding for building and renovating their stadiums, and the Badgers are a governor’s signature away from getting $14.6 million in taxpayer funding to essentially pay athletes.
“I would love to do a basketball tournament,” Schlesinger said, noting the Badgers had played hoops in front of 18,000 fans at the Brewers’ stadium. “You could do a lot more. You could have NBA games. You could have NCAA games. That would be fun. … I would love to see some of the Wisconsin colleges come in and play basketball. … That could also be true for high school basketball. I’m certainly open to a lot of ideas about how to generate excitement and generate crowds for the winter months.”
While these big venues provide media attention and a national stage, McIntosh noted football still pays the bills.
“The surplus from football annually is what has allowed us to produce or provide over 20 other sports,” McIntosh said. “It’s the financial engine that underwrites the cost of broad-based opportunity. It’s the financial engine that underwrites the cost of sports like women’s hockey and women’s volleyball.”
In fact, UW football and its associated TV deals account for roughly 75% of the athletics department’s $198 million in annual revenue — providing the massive surplus needed to bankroll the other 22 varsity sports.
As Wisconsin prepares to open its 2026 season in an NBA arena, and the Brewers continue to “winterize” for the future, the message is clear: the state isn’t just watching the spectacle in Chicago—it’s building the stage to host it here.
