Western students will soon know where they can scream and wave their red towels during the next basketball season in Diddle Arena.

Student Government Association will host a forum today at 4 p.m. in Downing University Center room 305 to discuss student seating plans for Diddle Arena.

At the forum, SGA President Jamie Sears and SGA Executive Vice President John Bradley will present students with a seating plan that the Diddle Seating Commitee is considering. The forum will also provide an opportunity for students to voice their concerns or ask questions.

“Every student is paying an athletic fee that is pretty hefty,” Sears said. “It is every student’s business because they’re paying for it.”

Sears and Bradley will be the voting student representatives on the committee.

“We wanted to get feedback from students,” Sears said. “So we asked if we could hold off voting for that.”

Students currently have 1,355 seats in Diddle. The plan SGA will present gives students 1,735 seats, an increase of 380 seats.

Students average only 840 seats each game, Associate Athletic Director Jim Clark said.

The plan to be presented at the forum proposes that students get approximately 21.7 percent of the arena’s seats, Sears said.

Currently students sit in sections 108, 109, 110, 211, 212, 214 and 215. Students do not sit together as one group. But if this plan is approved, that will change.

The new plan has students sitting in sections 108, 109, 110, 208, 209, 210 and half of section 300, which is a row of pull-out bleachers running behind sections 208 through 210. Students will also have the section under the goals on both ends of the floor.

“Behind the goal is all right,” Bowling Green senior Jeremy Stice said. “But I’d rather sit behind the bench ’cause you can see clearly.”

Sears said the proposal will give students a bigger chunk of the arena then they have ever had before.

In an ideal situation, students might pick a different seat, but they should consider that they are not paying general admission ticket prices nor are they paying the $5,000 dollars plus that some pay for luxury suites, Sears said.

She said, as commitee members, she and Bradley would take student’s feedback into consideration.

“They want student feedback,” Sears said. “We’re gonna definitely express that.”

Reach Adriane Hardin at [email protected].