As you may have heard, demand for Gophers Football season tickets has skyrocketed for next year because of the new stadium. That means there are very few seats available for special events, including Parents Weekend. The Parent Program has been alloted a maximum of just 600 tickets for the football game on Parents Weekend, so we are being creative about planning our activities for next fall.

We will still provide the traditional workshops and most Parents Weekend events, but because fewer stadium tickets are available, we are planning alternate game-viewing sites and multiple concurrent activities at Coffman Memorial Union during the football game on October 10.

Families who do not have stadium seating will be able to watch the game in the Coffman Theater and at other sites in Coffman Union. Bowling, other games, snacks, and prizes will be available for family members who purchase a Parents Weekend Maroon Package. A special half-time show will be presented in the Theater. The Maroon Package will include discount coupons for the Bookstore and other campus venues, admission to parent workshops on Friday and Saturday and to most Sunday activities, and it will include a Victory Ice Cream Social following the football game. Cost will be $30 per person.

We will also offer a Parents Weekend Gold Package that includes a football ticket. Due to the limited number of tickets, however, we will give first priority to parents of next year's U of M juniors and seniors, allowing those parents to order in May. We are limiting families to just two stadium-seating tickets. If additional tickets remain after parents of next year's juniors and seniors have had a chance to purchase them, we will accept orders from parents of next year's sophomores. These tickets will open up in June, again limiting orders to two tickets per family. Parents of next year's freshmen may order Gold Packages beginning in July, provided that tickets remain.

Gold Packages will include admission to parent workshops on Friday and Saturday and to most Sunday activities as well as the Victory Ice Cream Social following the football game. Because the cost of football tickets has increased significantly for the new stadium, the Gold Packages will cost $70 each. (A Gold Package includes stadium seating for one person; two packages will cost $140.)

While I know this is not ideal, and many parents will be unable to purchase stadium seating, we promise to make the alternate viewing sites fun. There is no entirely fair way to allot tickets, but we've asked a number of parents for ideas and feedback, and the consensus was that opening registrations first to parents of upperclassmen made the most sense.

We are currently in the process of setting up online ordering and finalizing details for taking orders from parents of juniors and seniors. We will send an e-mail message within the next three weeks to let you know when ordering will open for parents of juniors and seniors. Please note: The order form will require your student's name and student identification number, so be sure to have your student's ID number if you plan to order the Gold Package.

Parent Question of the Month: Please respond to the April Question of the Month at www.parent.umn.edu.