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Penn State

Penn State set to host country superstar at Beaver Stadium

nate-mug-10.12.14by: Nate Bauer08/15/23NateBauerBWI
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Luke Combs performs during CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium on Thursday, June 8, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. (USA Today)

Among the earliest, biggest challenges for Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft to confront in his tenure has been determining what to do with Beaver Stadium. After nearly a year with the Nittany Lions, this spring, a plan for a major renovation was formalized and approved by the university’s board of trustees.

The project is now in its planning stages, Kraft updating the media late last month that architect and construction management firms are still being hired. In the meantime, Kraft and his team are making use of the aging stadium in a big way this spring.

Beaver Stadium will play host to country music mega star Luke Combs. The concert is set for Saturday, April 27.

Combs is a 33-year old singer/songwriter from North Carolina who has achieved massive success in recent years. Among his peers, that has led to multiple Grammy nominations and Country Music Association Awards. He was also named the Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association in both 2021 and 2022 thanks to his huge following.

His current tour recently moved through North America and is now into Europe. Pre-sale information is now listed for the Beaver Stadium date at his web site.

Penn State utilizing Beaver Stadium more

The news will come as no surprise to James Franklin, who maintained a distance in his concern over Beaver Stadium’s future. Interviewing with Blue White Illustrated this summer, Franklin acknowledged that his primary push has been for improvements to the Nittany Lions’ internal infrastructure. But, he also made plain that the usage of Beaver Stadium was an important component to the athletic department’s plans.

“I’ve always been more focused on the facilities that we use essentially 365 days a year rather than seven. But I understand the impact of Beaver Stadium on the state of Pennsylvania, on this community, and then also building it or redoing it in a way that’s going to allow us to create revenue year round,” Franklin said. “So whether that’s restaurants and bars or hotels or whatever, concerts, other sporting events in there. The ability to be able to create revenue for the athletic department, for Penn State football, I think is really valuable and the reality is, just like I talked about Lasch building, when you haven’t really done anything in Beaver Stadium, you have the same issues.

“It’s not just that it’s out of date and out of code, it’s structurally if you don’t do it soon, the choice is going to be taken out of your hands. And we don’t have a solution like a lot of schools where you can say Okay, you’re at Northwestern, you’re gonna go play at the Bear’s stadium for a couple of years while you’re redoing your stadium. We don’t have that option. So we have to get it right.”

Tickets are not yet on sale, but pre-sale information is already at Combs’ web site.

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