New Penn State Director of Athletics Patrick Kraft released an often speculated number Tuesday evening as part of the first Coaches Show of the season. That number: 91,754 the number Penn State football season ticket holders. It’s unknown if that number is higher or lower than previous years.
Penn State has previously never announced total season ticket holder figures although the department has at times often released the total of new season ticket holders throughout the course of the offseason. The reasoning for never releasing the number publicly has never been given. During the 2020 fiscal year – the most recently reported unimpacted by COVID-19 – Penn State reported football ticket sale revenues in excess $37.6 million.
“There’s a school in Columbus, and there’s a school in Ann Arbor and then there’s us and I think we’re you know […] we gotta go get our mojo back,” Kraft said on Tuesday. “We got to get some juice and carry that stick and not be shy to be confident about that. But I’ll tell you the number that I think is staggering. We have 91,754 season ticket holders. Nobody in the country has that. So let that number sink in 91,754 season ticket holders. Texas just went out and promoted 63,000. We’re gonna have about 30,000 on them. That tells you how powerful we are and when we’re all together in that. That’s impressive.”
Kraft brought up the ticket holder total in reference to Penn State’s ongoing challenges with name image and likeness and getting fans on board with helping cultivate opportunities for student-athletes. Beaver Stadium holds roughly 107,000 in seating with excess capacity reaching an all-time high of 110,889 against Ohio State in 2018.
