Hundreds of Kansas University basketball fans eager for season tickets have responded to the athletic department’s one-time offer to reward those who contribute money by June 30.

“We don’t have an exact number yet, but it looks like we’ve raised somewhere between $5 million and $7 million since the middle of May, when we sent the forms out,” said associate athletic director Jim Marchiony.

“We should have a more definitive number in a week or so,” he said. “We’re still working through the checks.”

The athletic department’s Web site says more than 4,200 members annually donate nearly $5.5 million to the Williams Fund, the fund-raising arm of the athletic department.

The response, Marchiony said, has been both welcomed and overwhelming.

“Several people are putting in considerable amounts of overtime, trying to keep up,” he said.

KU adopted a priority point system for distributing season tickets earlier this year after officials realized that many season ticket holders were not regular donors to the Williams Fund.

Under the new ticket system, donors are awarded varying amounts of points for past and current support of the athletic department and the university at-large. Those with the most points will be assigned the best seats: middle court, closest to the floor.

The double-point offer ended last week, but donors have until Aug. 31 to increase their point totals for the 2004-05 season. Point totals will be recalculated each year.

Initially, plans called for season-ticket application forms being mailed in late June. But last week, department officials announced the forms would be mailed around July 15.

“We didn’t want to send out the applications until we’ve made sure that all the information we have is updated,” Marchiony said. “At this point, we haven’t had time to do that.”

The forms will include a tentative calculation of the recipient’s point total.

The forms will be due back to the athletic department “30 days after they’re mailed,” Marchiony said.

Fans will be required to pay for their tickets before their seat locations are assigned.

“They’ll have a general idea of where they’ll be sitting, certainly,” Marchiony said. “But we can’t assign specific seats until everybody’s point totals are finalized, and there just isn’t going to be enough time to have that done beforehand.”

Marchiony said most of those who took advantage of the double-point offer were “current donors and season-ticket holders.”

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