Centre County’s tourism promotion bureau on Tuesday unveiled a formalized effort to make the region a marquee sports and entertainment destination.
Joined by Penn State Athletics representatives, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau announced the creation of the Happy Valley Sports and Entertainment Commission during a press conference at Beaver Stadium.
The commission will be a collaborative effort among community partners to draw more and bigger events to the county.
“We’re sitting here in the second largest stadium stadium in the United States of America, fourth largest in the world,” HVAB President and CEO Fritz Smith said. “It has always struck me that the very presence of this facility means that we need to stretch and we need to think big and we need to have a vision for what we can be here in terms of sports and entertainment in Centre County.”
The concept behind the commission has been casually explored in the past, Smith said, but the county has fallen behind peer communities. Nationally, there are 300 sports commissions, including 15 in Pennsylvania and nine in the 14 Big Ten communities.
“When we look at the sports legacy we have here in Centre County we believe it’s past time,” Smith said.
HVAB board member Joe Battista — the former Icers coach, Nittany Lion Club director and now author and motivational speaker — will chair the commission and Penn State Deputy Athletic Director Scott Sidwell will serve as vice chair.
“It’s so exciting. The energy and the passion that we all have toward this, it’s going to be infectious,” Battista said. “We’re already doing awesome things here, but we’re going to take it to a whole other level. That’s the goal.”
Beaver Stadium “sits right at the center” of potential new opportunities, Sidwell said. The venue has in recent years ever-so-slowly branched out from solely being the home of Penn State football. In 2017, the Happy Valley Jam was the first major concert event in the stadium’s history, while in 2019 State College hosted Cumberland Valley for just the second high school football game ever played there. In May, the stadium hosted Penn State commencement for the first time in decades.
“We’re actively pursuing, planning, trying to get ourselves in position to attract a big name to come to Beaver Stadium to have a concert,” Sidwell said.
The stadium has long been discussed as a potential site for an NHL Winter Classic game, though prepping the venue for an early January event has been an obstacle.
“There’s a significant expense to that and we’re going to continue to try to find ways to make that happen,” Sidwell said. “We would love to host that event. It’s probably going to take some collaboration of the sports commission to come together to see how we might drive some resources from the local community to help make that an economic engine at a time of year that we don’t necessarily have that.”
The current configuration of Beaver Stadium wouldn’t accommodate an international soccer friendly, “but we’re looking to see if there are other opportunities that we could have events in there that might also attract a number of people to the region,” Sidwell said.
He added that there have been some early discussions “to potentially bring Topgolf to the region sometime in the summer.”
Sidwell and Smith cited other venues and resources on and off the Penn State campus as important pieces of the initiative, such as the State College Spikes, the Bryce Jordan Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, Tussey Mountain, The State Theatre and high-profile foot and bike races like the Tussey Mountainback and the Rothrock Grit Gravel Grinder.
Smith also noted the private sector investments in new sports facilities — Nittany Valley Sports Centre in Patton Township and C3 Sports in College Township — as well as Centre Region Parks and Rec’s plans for new ball fields at the planned Whitehall Road Regional Park as key assets for driving sports events and a part of the collective marketing effort.
“So much of what we do here in this community ties back to sports,” Smith said. “This is a way to elevate it. It’s a way to extend the profile.”
He added that the Happy Valley Music Fest, which has been on hiatus the past two years, can become “a must-attend event” with a national reach.
HVAB has commissioned sports tourism consulting firm Huddle Up Group to conduct an analysis and provide recommendations for the commission’s structure as well as assess and benchmark the county’s athletic facilities and events potential. The study is expected to take about five months.
An economic impact study is also underway to assess the extent to which the entire spectrum of local athletic and entertainment events benefit the community.
Battista said, however, the work of the commission is not just about economic impact.
“I think about all the different things we’re going to be able to do for youth in the state and in the region and the things we’ll be able to do nationally, the types of events we’re going to be able to attract here,” he said. “It’s an exciting time.”
