Frank Godding will find out next week if he has a shot at holding on to the Kansas University men’s basketball season tickets he’s had since the end of World War II.

Godding, 81, of Topeka, on Friday was in Lawrence for a hearing in a lawsuit he and Topeka attorney Brock Snyder filed late last month challenging a KU Athletic Corp. plan to force some season-ticket holders to pay $5,000 to keep their seats.

“What they’re doing is nothing but absolute blackmail,” Godding said during testimony in Douglas County District Court.

In their lawsuit, Godding and Snyder asked the court to delay application of KU’s plan until after they’ve had time to develop and present legal arguments against it.

Douglas County District Judge Jack Murphy said he would rule on their request “right away … next week.”

Under the plan, 121 season-ticket holders who were not members of the athletic corporation’s Williams Fund or who had fallen behind in their contributions to the fund were told to put up $5,000 or lose their current seats. The $5,000 would be in addition to the cost of the tickets.

All of those affected are in prime seating areas. Seats in other areas of Allen Fieldhouse would be made available to them.

Godding testified that last year when he realized he had not made his annual $200 contribution to the Williams Fund — which is used to pay for the school’s athletic scholarships — he met with fund director Jay Hinrichs and offered to put up $400 for this year’s donation and to make up for last year’s oversight.

“He refused to even discuss it,” Godding said, referring to Hinrichs.

Longtime basketball season-ticket holders, from left, Frank Godding, of Topeka, and Dave and Margaret Shirk, of Lawrence, sit outside a Douglas County courtroom. Judge Jack Murphy will rule next week on a request to delay application of Kansas University's plan to demand ,000 from some season-ticket holders.

Godding said he could not afford the $5,000 needed to keep his two tickets.

Hinrichs did not attend the hearing.

Snyder, who represented himself as well as Godding, said he had been told Hinrichs would be out of town for a month.

“How convenient,” said Snyder, who said he had hoped to question Hinrichs.

Most of those affected by the plan are, like Godding, senior citizens and longtime KU fans.

Godding said his ties to KU dated to when, as a second-grader, he retrieved shot puts for KU’s Jim Bausch, who later won the decathlon in the 1932 Olympics.

Snyder, a season-ticket holder since 1968, argued that the plan was “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” and was not supported by a contract or a written policy. He said season-ticket holders were not given enough time to raise the required $5,000.

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Snyder, 67, said he joined the Williams Fund for one year and dropped out, noting he had put three children through KU and thought that was enough support for the university. His son will be a freshman at KU this fall.

Sara Trower, an associate general counsel at KU, argued that the laws Snyder cited in asking the court to review the plan applied only to public agencies. Both the athletic corporation and the Williams Fund, she said, are private nonprofit agencies and not subject to the review sought by Snyder.

Trower also cited a 2001 Kansas Court of Appeals ruling in a case — Wichita State University v. Marrs — that, she said, clearly defined season tickets as licenses solely controlled by the athletic corporation.

Trower presented the court with copies of season-ticket receipts sent to Snyder and Godding last season. On the back of each receipt was a statement that reads in part: “Purchase of season tickets does not create any property rights in the purchaser, and does not entitle the purchaser to purchase season tickets in the future.”

The athletic corporation, she said, has the authority to distribute tickets any way it sees fit.