By Murray Evans
The Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Seeking to raise more money to support non-revenue sports, the University of Kentucky will raise ticket prices next season for home football and men's basketball games.

UK also will require some season-ticket holders for football and men's basketball to begin making donations to a newly created athletics fund. UK officials hope that within two years, an additional $4 million in annual revenue for the athletics department will be raised.

The changes were part of a plan approved unanimously by the UK Athletic Association board of directors Friday. The goal of the plan was to overhaul the athletics department's budgetary system and raise sufficient funds to make UK competitive in each of the 22 sports in which it fields a team, athletics director Mitch Barnhart said.

Barnhart cited examples of West Virginia and Fresno State, each of which eliminated multiple sports programs this week.

"We are not a program that ever wants to do that," he said. "We want to continue to support our programs and allow them to be competitive in our conference. That is a hard road in this conference. It is a difficult conference in which to break through, and you can't do it with one arm tied behind your back. That's what we've asked some of our coaches to do."

Ticket prices for men's basketball games in Rupp Arena will rise $5, to $27 for lower-level seats and $22 for upper-level seats. Season-ticket prices will rise by $75, to $405 for the lower level and $330 for the upper level.

Based on the just-completed season, UK's ticket prices would be the most expensive among Southeastern Conference schools, but cheaper than tickets at other national powers like Duke ($50), North Carolina ($35) and Maryland ($31).

For football games at Commonwealth Stadium - except the game against the University of Louisville - prices for tickets between the goal lines will rise $7 to $29. End-zone seats still will cost $22. For the game against Louisville, all seats will cost $40. Season ticket prices will rise $60 to $214 for seats between the goal lines and $18 to $172 for end-zone seats.

There will be no changes in student ticket prices for football or basketball.

Also included in the plan will be a requirement for holders of certain seats in Rupp Arena and Commonwealth Stadium to make a donation to UK's new K-Fund - which replaces the existing Blue-White Fund - in order to maintain those season tickets in those seats.

At Rupp Arena, the entire lower seating area, excluding student seating, will have a minimum $500 per seat yearly donation attached to the price of each ticket. The highest-priced donor seats will require a donation of $1,250 per seat. Associate athletics director Greg Byrne said that 56 percent of available lower-arena priority seating is not included in the current donor program. A few seats in the upper arena will require a $250 donation.

The requirements will be phased in over two years, Byrne said. Those who have not paid in the past will pay 50 percent of the required donation next season, then will pay the full cost during the 2004-05 season.

For football games, donations for sideline seats in the lower bowl and selected upper-bowl seats will range from $75 to $375. Those donations also will be phased in over a two-year period starting in 2004, Byrne said.

A point system also has been established to determine a pecking order among donors for post-season tickets and improving current season-ticket locations. The system is based on the number of years a donor has given, the amount and other factors.

"We will give every seatholder the opportunity to retain their seats," Byrne said.

Byrne said the increased ticket revenue will bring in $1.7 million during the 2003-04 school year. Annual giving should increase from about $4 million to $6 million next year and $8 million the year after that, he said. In 2002, UK ranked 11th among 12 Southeastern Conference schools in annual giving revenues for athletics.

The athletics department will give $1.05 million to UK president Lee Todd's office, money that Todd said has been earmarked for scholarship use. Other money will go toward hiring assistant coaches in eight sports that don't have the maximum number of coaches allowed by the NCAA and to offset increases in athletics scholarship costs, Barnhart said.

"We want to make UK fans proud, and the best way to do that is to invest," he said. "I'm not saying there won't be heartache in this, but we want to try and keep in place a spot for everyone in our program."