There’s a new wrinkle in the debate about how to distribute next year’s supply of Kansas University men’s basketball season tickets that are set aside for faculty, staff and retirees.

Instead of faculty, staff and retirees having access to 200 additional seats, as had been previously discussed by the faculty Senate Executive Committee, the number likely will be closer to 300.

But these seats won’t be part of a traditional 16-game season ticket. Instead, the SenEx committee voted Monday to make the tickets good for four games. A lottery system would be used to decide who gets the privilege of purchasing one or two seats for the four-game package.

The lottery, which would be conducted every two years, would be open to all full-time faculty and staff and retirees who don’t have season tickets. A second lottery would decide who gets any remaining four-game tickets — should there be any left over from the first lottery. Depending on demand, a third or fourth lottery might be necessary.

“I think this has some real interesting possibilities, I really do,” said SenEx chairman Ray Davis.

Davis said the plan was designed to make tickets available to as many faculty, staff and retirees as possible.

In keeping with past SenEx deliberations, the lottery will not apply to the 1,622 faculty, staff and retirees who currently have season tickets. They would be allowed to continue buying 16-game season tickets.

A recent polling of faculty and staff showed many who do not have season tickets wanted them but thought they were unaffordable.

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SenEx members decided that limiting the tickets to four games would make them more affordable.

There’s no way to gauge the likelihood of someone being allocated two, three or four four-game tickets, he said, because that will depend on how many people enter the lottery, a number that’s not yet known.

“We’ve tried to take a balanced approach and I think this does that,” said SenEx member Mark Ezell.

The lottery will not be tied to seniority, but seniority will be used in the assigning of seats. Those who’ve been with the university the longest would get the better seats.

SenEx members plan to review the proposal at the group’s Jan. 27 meeting, after which a final version will be put in writing and forwarded to the full University Council for approval.

Before then, SenEx will seek KU Athletic Department input.

“We don’t want to come out with a system that’s so complicated or is so hard to administer that it’s impractical,” said SenEx member Susan Twombly.

KU Athletic Department officials have said they will administer whatever plan the faculty approves.

KU Athletic Department spokesman Jim Marchiony declined to say much about the SenEx proposal.

“We’ll have to sit down and go over how it is they want it handled,” Marchiony said. “But I can say that the more complicated a (formula) becomes the more difficult it is to administer and after awhile, that difficulty becomes an issue. Whether what they’re proposing put us at that point, I don’t know.”

Under the proposal, as current season ticket holders leave the university, their tickets would be added to the lottery pool.

Limiting current faculty season ticket holders to no more than two tickets next year is expected to add about 100 tickets to the lottery pool.