Oklahoma State to adjust men's basketball seating, add premium areas in Gallagher-Iba Arena

STILLWATER Focused on reinvigorating the fan environment for men's basketball games at Gallagher-Iba Arena, the Oklahoma State athletic department has settled on changes to some key seating areas for the 2025-26 season.The upper sections will switch from reserved seating to general admission and a new premium option will be added courtside, OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg told The Oklahoman.With the change in the upper seating sections, the athletic department has reached out to season ticket holders in those areas to present them with options in the lower bowl.By making the entire upper bowl a general admission area, OSU can funnel fans to the west side of the arena, which includes suites above the upper sections.

With that, most game days will begin with the black curtains lowered from the ceiling on the north, south and east sides of GIA, unless ticket demand dictates otherwise.The whole thing is were trying to create a home-court environment and atmosphere that is really good for our team, our student-athletes, our program, Weiberg said.

We did this in the NIT games, where we lowered the curtain for the 300 level and pushed everyone into the 200 level.

I think everyone agreed that created a really good environment.This aligns with the strategy used in the past for womens basketball and wrestling, with additional curtains being raised as ticket sales require it.Weve been doing that for several seasons, Weiberg said.

It has worked well in those sports.More: Oklahoma State athletics saw revenue rise in 2024, but Chad Weiberg knows more is neededWeiberg is aware of the impact to fans who have had season tickets in the 300 sections some for many years.Its a change for them and Im very sensitive to that, he said.

But were trying to make it right for them.

Were trying to give them good options to move, and were prioritizing them so they get the available seats first, and those kinds of things.Were trying to be very fair about it while creating the atmosphere and environment that we want.I look at what the Thunder have done with Loud City up there.

Even for Thunder games during the season, you can get some pretty affordable tickets in Loud City.

So were trying to figure out whats the right way for us to provide that opportunity and create that atmosphere as our program hopefully gets back on its feet.Loge boxes will be added in some courtside sections along one baseline as a premium seating area to serve the overall goal of getting more fans closer to the court for mens basketball games.Weiberg says the loge boxes will have a minimal effect on student seating in the baseline sections.It wont impact that many seats overall, the way were planning to do it, Weiberg said.

I think students will still have plenty of good seats that they want to have.Additionally, this will create a new revenue stream for OSU, which has been a strategic focus since the point that it became clear the NCAA antitrust lawsuit settlement was destined to open the door for universities to directly pay their athletes.

The settlement became official late Friday and allows each school to share up to the expected cap of $20.5 million in revenue with athletes.Of course, most universities dont have an extra $20.5 million in unused revenue on a yearly basis, so schools like OSU are working to increase their annual revenue to fill the gap.OSU is raising ticket prices in several sports and continues a push to grow the athletic departments donor arm, the POSSE.

Big 12 schools saw an increase in the annual revenue distribution from the conference this year, though the league still ranks fourth among the Power 4 in per-school revenue payouts.Theres only so much we can do about the conference distribution, Weiberg said.

In a lot of ways, that is outside of our control.

But what is not outside of our control is our people.We can add as many donors to the POSSE club as we can possibly have.

We can continue to grow that.

We can continue to sell tickets.

We can continue to do all of those things and will need to do that.

And our fans have responded really well when weve asked them to help.Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman.

Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK.

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