What is the future of Beaver Stadium? Penn State is close to finalizing a plan for it, Pat Kraft says
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said Friday that he believes his athletic department will soon have a recommendation for university president Neeli Bendapudi and the Board of Trustees about the direction it believes the school should go with the future of Beaver Stadium.
“We’re very close,” Kraft said. “All the data is there now. [It’s about] figuring out the financial models, how would it work, [and] what’s the recommendation? So we’re close.”
Kraft stated the obvious that it is “expensive” to build a new stadium for the football program as it debates renovation versus a new venue. And, he said that the 107,000-seat capacity at Beaver Stadium is special to the school, but that no one is building stadiums that big anymore.
“I think that’s an important piece to who we are,” Kraft said. “So yeah, there is a financial threshold that building new could be not feasible with the financial piece.”
Reading between the lines, renovation over building new seems to be the direction things are heading. But, Kraft and his team have not made a final recommendation yet. It sounds like that could come early in 2023, however.
“I love this building,” Kraft said while sitting in the Beaver Stadium media room behind the south end zone. “I love coming in this building. Beaver Stadium, I love the history of this building. When I walked the parking lots, and I talked to people about having generations of memories in this building. So I want to make this building better.”
A timeline for a final decision was not announced, though. However, Kraft said 19 studies have been done on Beaver Stadium over the years. So, the information is there to put a plan in motion finally. When the ball will start rolling down the hill, however, remains to be seen.
Kraft talks Penn State NIL progress
Kraft held an introductory news conference in April and talked at Big Ten Media Days in July. In both instances, he made clear that the university was behind on its name, image, and likeness dealings and that it was a top priority of his.
What progress has been made since then?
“I felt like we were really behind from a total NIL perspective in educating our student-athletes,” Kraft said Friday. “The infrastructure [now], I think we’re in a really good spot. What we’ve got to do now [is], we’ve got to put it together so that it’s easier to comprehend. So from an internal perspective, I feel really good [about the] infrastructure. [NIL collective] Success with Honor has been really, really strong, and the fundraising efforts there is starting to pick up.
“I feel like we’re really in a good spot. I don’t lose as much sleep over that anymore. Do we have to get better? Yes. This is here to stay. This is part of the world we’re living in.”
