Penn State Trustees to Host Meeting Regarding Beaver Stadium Renovation

Penn State football’s home, Beaver Stadium, is one of the most iconic in college sports.

It’s been there since 1960, and it’s where plenty of Magic’s happened.

It was home for all 46 of Joe Paterno’s seasons as head coach.

It’s hosted PSU legends such as Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell, Todd Blackledge, Kerry Collins and Saquon Barkley, just to name a few. It’s also hosted some big time opposing players, such as Tom Brady. In the past 20 years, Beaver Stadium has turned into one of America’s best home field advantages. The annual ‘White Out’ game is one of the most anticipated events on college football’s calendar.

But 60+ years is a long time. It’s pretty much universally agreed that Beaver Stadium has plenty of problems (bathrooms, no winterization etc.)

Penn State has recognized this and, as a result, announced a four-year, $700 million renovation plan last May.

A year after that announcement, Penn State’s Board of Trustees will meet May 21 in a meeting labeled “proposed project approval, Beaver Stadium renovation.” That’s the extent of the revealed information, and the meeting will be streamed to the public.

Penn State could have built a new stadium, but that project had the potential to cost more than $1.5 billion, per AD Pat Kraft last year.

Instead, Penn State’s choosing to renovate its home for roughly half the cost.

Work for this renovation has already begun, with the winterization process underway.

Penn State also began to demolish parts of Beaver Stadium after last football season. Per the project bid description, Penn State is looking to remove the stadium’s “west sideline structure” in two phases after the next two respective football seasons.

“This is major, major project,” Kraft said in December. “Literally 30 percent is like, where are the pipes going, where do you got circulation? So that one is
ongoing. We feel really good about where we are headed, but literally … there is not a thing we are not evaluating in this process.”