In early May, Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved an initial expenditure of $70 million for the opening stages of the Beaver Stadium renovation project.
Overall renovations, which are tentatively scheduled for an August 2027 completion, are earmarked for around $700 million. So when does that money come into play?
“We’ll go back to the board,” Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft told StateCollege.com. “So initially we’re finalizing architecture, construction management, you go get the permit. So it’s really that precursor to really doing a lot of work, then there is also a lot of enabling work that has to be done, for example, winterization with the stadium. So that will happen in that [initial] project.
“There are some projects I would say that are needed to get done right away. Some of the things help circulation but really the big thing is winterization. So when the playoffs come in, it allows us to feel much more comfortable about hosting the game in the middle of winter. But a lot of that is focused early on on just prep of design, the permitting and getting yourself and everybody ready to go. Because we got to go back to the board again and explain kind of what the next steps are.”
To answer a broader question, Kraft stated that the known big picture renovation pieces – mainly the renovation of the west side of Beaver Stadium, the winterization of the entire venue and concourse, concession and restroom improvements throughout — are all that the overall project will entail. Effectively, there’s not another big drop of ideas and renovation coming down the road. What is known is all there is to know.
Broader still, there is no ongoing effort to bring in state funding to help with the Beaver Stadium renovation. While other athletic department proposals indicated that no state funding would be part of their completion, the Beaver Stadium project omits that verbiage. If state funding were to be used it would not be tuition dollars, but Kraft isn’t banking — or planning — on that coming to fruition.
“We really don’t have it in our financial models,” Kraft said. “I’m not looking — I would love to have state funding for but it is not something that we’ve really been banking on. We can fund it. Athletics can do it. We have the financial models to do that. So it’s really not a hot topic for us. And I mean, just because of how we’re separated from the institution on their funding. So for us, we just need to know — I always kind of like to go to the worst case scenario — what can we fund on our own. If that were to come up great. If not, great. We’re good enough.”
With multiple years left before the project is slated to be complete it remains to be seen if Penn State will turn to Harrisburg for some assistance, but as it stands today it looks as though the athletic department will pay for its biggest undertaking in two decades out of pocket and debt servicing.
