Tickets in short supply for Geneva High graduation

The hottest ticket in town this weekend may be one to the Geneva High School graduation.

Geneva has its largest senior class ever -- 464, which is 33 more than last year. At four tickets per graduate, and room for only 2,300 spectators in the contest gym where the ceremony is conducted, extra tickets were at a premium.

Principal Tom Rogers announced Monday not everybody would get all the extra tickets they requested. No more than two extras per graduate are being handed out.

Extra guests can watch the ceremony on a closed-circuit television feed in the school's auditorium. They don't need tickets.

An apologetic Rogers said besides having more graduates -- "we inch our way up every year" -- more people than ever requested additional tickets.

In the past, he has only had to turn people down when they requested a lot of extra tickets, like 15, he said.

"We really did have an abundance of requests," he said.

Geneva tried having graduation in its football stadium twice. It didn't gain that much extra seating and it rained, Rogers said.

How about moving the ceremony to the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates like the St. Charles district, or Northern Illinois University's Convocation Center like West Aurora?

"Not at this point," Rogers said.