Penn State Trustees to Consider a Beaver Stadium Naming Rights Proposal

Penn State is considering a Beaver Stadium naming rights proposal, which the Board of Trustees' finance and investment committee will discuss Monday. According to the Penn State Board of Trustees website, the commitee is scheduled to hear a "proposed recommendation from the facilities and academic unit naming committee" on Monday morning. Blue-White Illustrated first reported that the committee would discuss a naming rights proposal regarding Beaver Stadium.

A source confirmed Saturday that some form of Beaver Stadium naming rights is the subject of the public meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET. There was no information Saturday regarding the specifics of the naming rights plan or the company potentially involved. The Penn State trustees meeting will be available to the public via livestream.

Penn State has begun a $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium that will completely transform the venue's West side, adding two major premium clubs, suits, loge boxes, club seating and a new media facility. The renovation also will add the Lubert Family Welcome Center, which Penn State officials want to become the "front door" of the university. The renovations are scheduled to be completed for the 2027 Penn State football season.

Penn State's position on Beaver Stadium naming rights has evolved over the past two years. In 2023, Penn State Athletics Director Pat Kraft said in an interview that "naming Beaver Stadium is not on the table right now." At the time. Penn State had just proposed the $700 million renovation plan. But in a 2024 interview with Statecollege.com, Kraft said that he was "open to everything" with regard to naming rights, selling on-field ad space and more.

The Penn State athletic department, which is self-funding, is paying for the Beaver Stadium project through bond issues, philanthropy and new revenue streams. Penn State has raised more than $70 million in contributions for the renovation. Penn State has estimated donor opportunities for the renovation at $134.3 million, and one of those new revenue streams could come from a naming rights partnership.

Sara Thorndike, Penn State senior vice president for finance & business/treasurer, told university trustees last year that the project could come in at $664 million and that the total budget will not exceed $700 million.

"We have stress-tested multiple scenarios within the renovation [plan]," Thorndike said in a 2024 interview. "We are sure that we have enough revenue sources, both from the athletics budget but also the new incremental revenues, to ensure that we could pay back as much as $700 million, even though that's not what we're intending."

Selling naming rights to college football stadiums is common. Among the Big Ten programs that have sold naming rights to football venues are Maryland (SECU Stadium), Rutgers (SHI Stadium) and Minnesota (Huntington Bank Stadium). Ohio State in 2022 sold the field sponsorship rights to Ohio Stadium to Safelite AutoGlass.

Separately, some in the Penn State football community have asked the university torecognize late football coach Joe Paterno by naming the field at Beaver Stadium after him. In February 2024, Penn State trustee Anthony Lubrano briefly introduced a resolution asking the board to recognize Paterno by holding a Joe and Sue Paterno Day and to name the field at Beaver Stadium after Paterno. Lubrano withdrew the resolution after a statement from fellow trustee Jay Paterno.

The interaction at the February 2024 Penn State's Board of Trustees meeting followed reporting by Spotlight PA that trustees and university officials had met last year to discuss recognizing Paterno. According to the Spotlight PA story, Penn State officials were "hesitant" to name the Beaver Stadium field after Paterno, whom the board fired in 2011 after Jerry Sandusky initially was indicted for child sexual abuse. 

"If Joe Paterno was here right now, he'd respect the vision of our president and implore us to do the hard things required for the future of Penn State, the things being asked by President [Neeli] Bendapudi," Jay Paterno said in his statement to the board. "He'd focus on making sure future generations of Penn State graduates can afford their education with a chance to start their post-college years building lives of meaning and service that will swell the fame of Dear Old State. He'd be more concerned about improving academic rankings and, off the field. APR academic football scores than seeing his name on the field."