PROVIDENCE - Providence College basketball fans are about to learn that progress comes with a cost.

With the Friars set to enjoy the now-completed, $80-million face-lift at the Dunkin' Donuts Center this season, they are asking their best fans for additional financial support. For the first time in six years, the school is requiring most season-ticket holders to pay an increase in their seat license donation to the Friars Forever Athletic Fund. The new guidelines will also expand the number of sections where a seat license payment is necessary to secure season tickets.

Ticket renewal forms are being sent out to the approximately 7,000 season ticket holders early next week. PC officials stress that there is no increase in the price of tickets, only an expansion of the Friars Forever program that has been a smashing success for the athletic department for the last six years. Proceeds from the seat licenses have been poured back into the program and helped pay for a new fitness center, sports medicine facility, a new weight room, team charter flights to road games, scholarships, coaches' salaries and improvements that have become mandatory at virtually every other Big East school.

"Over the last six years, over $30 million has all been put back into the program," said PC athletic director Bob Driscoll. "When you combine that with the $80 million that the state has spent at The Dunk, you're talking about a significant investment into our program, and we're very fortunate that our fans have given us that type of support."

Now the Friars are asking for even more support. In the past, licenses for most seats were priced at $100, $250 and $500 for the 15 premier sections at The Dunk. Those figures will now range anywhere from $750 to $75 and cover 35 sections. All seat-license contributions are 80 percent tax-deductible. As an example, choice center-court seats in section 122 will now require a donation of $750 per seat, plus the $500 cost of a ticket.

The seat-license program raised roughly $700,000 last year, and that amount is expected to soar over $1 million this year. Steve Napolillo, PC's associate athletic director in charge of fundraising, says that besides the new creature comforts of the refurbished Dunk (most notably new, cushioned seats and drink holders), fans will receive priority points depending on their level of giving that puts them in line for tickets to the Big East Tournament and for the first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games that the Dunk will host in 2010.

"Our Big East Tournament allotment sells out every year, and the NCAA has told us we'll only have about 6,000 seats to sell for the tournament in 2010. Our season-ticket holders will get the first crack at those and most likely sell them out," said Napolillo.

PC's premier seats are the ones that sit right on the sideline and baselines. The school offers 90 of those seats and each requires a license fee of $2,500, plus a $1,000 ticket cost. All are sold out. Napolillo said a new feature this season will be a "Dream Suite," located on one of the baselines, that includes two sofas and a TV. He is still attempting to sell that space.

"The best seats at the Celtics cost $950 a game. Compared to pro sports in our area, and to our competitors, we offer great value," Napolillo said.

Seat licenses at collegiate events net huge receipts, especially at football schools where crowds of 80,000 are commonplace. PC's giving levels are low compared to most Big East schools'. At Louisville, a high-level donor who has four of the best seats at Freedom Hall pays a license of $1,600 a seat and is required to make a minimum gift of $150,000 payable over five years. At Marquette, fans seated in the premier sections pay a license fee of between $5,000 and $2,500 plus a ticket cost of $740. Georgetown levies a $5,000 and $3,500 price on its courtside ticket licenses and a required $1,750-$50 for every season ticket sold at the Verizon Center.

Driscoll said he understands that raising giving levels in a tough economy may cost the school some long-time season ticket holders. "We're extremely sensitive to what is happening in the local economy, but the reality is there are a ton of open seats in the building that people can choose to move to," he said. "I think our fans will pay to support our program, especially in the new Dunk. It is going to be as nice as any arena that we play in."

PC is pledging not to raise its license levels again for the next three years. Also, fans who choose not to pay a license fee but still want to purchase season tickets can be accommodated in other sections by calling the school's ticket office.