Stadium Infrastructure

[Taycro]

I'm a semi-recent PSU grad, so I'm now sitting in the "normal" seats with the rest of you all for the first time since my pre-college years. I preface with that because I apologize if these are commonly discussed complaints, but wow there are some major logistical/safety issues at Beaver Stadium right now. I hope that a decent chunk of the ~$750 million is going towards rectifying these, because the fan experience is piss poor in some areas of the stadium currently.


- At halftime, the concourse between EGU and EHU was completely overfilled and in my opinion, was starting to get worryingly close to mass crush territory. The Chickies and Petes is right next to the mens bathroom, so what you end up with is like 5 different flows of crowd traffic trying to get to different places (bathroom line, Chickies and Petes line, EGU, EHU, and other misc places).

- The concourse was body pressed up against body levels of crowded. People started to get extremely impatient and angry. I started to grow weary and couldn't help but think of the various European soccer incidents and the Astroworld Festival incident.

- To even get from our seats up in the 70s rows of EGU to the start of the concourse it took about 10 minutes. To get from concourse to the mens room right around the corner it took around 20-25 minutes. I got back to my seat with around 12:40 remaining in the third quarter. Of course I felt like a total dick as I had to "excuse me" my entire way through the row as a drive was underway.

- However, the time it took wasn't even my main concern. I get it, theres 109,000 people, the lines are gonna take a while (although my girlfriend was in and out of the womens room to the left in minutes). My main problem was the extreme safety issue in the bottleneck area between EGU and EHU where the Chickies and Petes and mens bathroom are. The concourse is way too narrow and it was nearing crush event territory. The EMS personnel had a tough time of moving their stretcher/supplies through as there was just no room to move. People started getting angsty and agitated, adding to the situation.

- I admittedly haven't read through the entire plans for the renovations, but I hope that some of these funds are going towards:

• Widening the concourse
• Adding additional bathrooms throughout the stadium
• Hiring a logistics consulting firm to better manage the flow of crowd traffic in the concourses. There is no reason there should be a popular restaurant right outside a tunnel and right next to a bathroom. It creates too much of a bottleneck.

I've been to many a sporting event throughout my life including being in the student section when it was overfilled for the 2021 Auburn whiteout I believe. This was by far the worst fan experience I've ever experienced at a sporting event. I understand that 109,000 people in one area is an extreme clusterf--k to manage, but safety of the fans needs to be priority.

 

[TheBigUglies]

PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!! - I agree, the stadium is out dated for the amount of people in there each football game especially with how people treat other these days. Add to that those that have been drinking all day and alcohol sales in the stadium it makes things much worse. Also, I think there are plenty of bathrooms in the stadium and people just choose to stand in line for the smaller or handicap bathrooms. I see it all the time when there is a much larger bathroom right around the corner in the outer ring of the ground level. Haven't been in the upper concourse in years so can't speak to that. They repainted the numbers on the bench seats somewhere in the 2000 oughts to get more butts in seats but they should have realized butts have gotten much bigger and some rows can't fit all the people. I have seen arguments amongst those at the end of the rows. Explains why so many get the seat backs installed so they make sure they can fit and aren't shoe horned in. Way back in the 90s we had season tickets and if we didn't get there before the one family(who were on the larger side) we would not be able to fit in the row. PSU has always made it about the almighty dollar and seems to be squeezing every penny out of football games. Also, crowd control at football games is next to impossible unless you have armed police because people don't listen. Sometimes they don't even listed to the police. Sad times we live in...

 

[PSUSignore]

I'd think safety feature #1 would be railings on the stairs inside the bowl. It's intimidating for some folks with nothing to hold on to. I haven't experienced anything close to crowd crush issues, but definitely have seen crowd flow problems. I only attend one game every couple years and last year vs Iowa the crowd going into the seats from the concourse was packed from a flow perspective, never been in a stadium with that issue. It's what comes with a super old stadium that has outgrown all of the entry/exit and crowd flow points. I just hope there's never a situation requiring an emergency evacuation because Beaver Stadium is not designed to execute one at all.

 

[MtNittany]

I'll add general appearance. I'll come out of retirement to do for them what I did for FIU (which is like a mini-Beav). Say the word PSU. My resume is over at the PGM facility.

 

[Pennst8]

PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!! - I agree, the stadium is out dated for the amount of people in there each football game especially with how people treat other these days. Add to that those that have been drinking all day and alcohol sales in the stadium it makes things much worse. Also, I think there are plenty of bathrooms in the stadium and people just choose to stand in line for the smaller or handicap bathrooms. I see it all the time when there is a much larger bathroom right around the corner in the outer ring of the ground level. Haven't been in the upper concourse in years so can't speak to that. They repainted the numbers on the bench seats somewhere in the 2000 oughts to get more butts in seats but they should have realized butts have gotten much bigger and some rows can't fit all the people. I have seen arguments amongst those at the end of the rows. Explains why so many get the seat backs installed so they make sure they can fit and aren't shoe horned in. Way back in the 90s we had season tickets and if we didn't get there before the one family(who were on the larger side) we would not be able to fit in the row. PSU has always made it about the almighty dollar and seems to be squeezing every penny out of football games. Also, crowd control at football games is next to impossible unless you have armed police because people don't listen. Sometimes they don't even listed to the police. Sad times we live in...

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"PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!!" - Such an idiotic statement.

 

[TheBigUglies]

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"PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!!" - Such an idiotic statement.

obviously you haven't been around these parts that long. Was just beating another poster to the sarcastic comment.

 

[PSUalum2007]

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"PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!!" - Such an idiotic statement.

Its true that building is a safety nightmare.

 

[LB99]

I’ve experienced the crowd issues the OP speaks of also. Trying to navigate the concourse is dangerous/impossible. The line for concessions and the bathroom gets tangled at some points and you can’t decipher which line anyone seems to be in. Now, add in also alcohol to the mix and there’s a lot of impatient people with short fuses. I try very hard to not leave my seat during high traffic times. It’s not worth the hassle. Hopefully, the renovation will make the fan experience more convenient.

 

[PSUFTG]

Crowd flow / entry / egress at the stadium are far worse now than they were 15 years ago - the same with flow into/out of parking areas.

Why is that? The last expansion of capacity was in 2001.

 

[JWB389]

Crowd flow / entry / egress at the stadium are far worse now than they were 15 years ago - the same with flow into/out of parking areas.

Why is that? The last expansion of capacity was in 2001.

In stadium, the traffic changed dramatically when they started selling beer.

Parking? Who knows, but they completely screwed that up for most people. And remember, they paid a lot of money for those changes.

 

[TheBigUglies]

Crowd flow / entry / egress at the stadium are far worse now than they were 15 years ago - the same with flow into/out of parking areas.

Why is that? The last expansion of capacity was in 2001.

At the beginning of the Kent State game there were whispers of an impending lightning storm that would have caused an evacuation of the stadium. Luckily the storm went in another direction or else that would have been a nightmare of epic proportions.

 

[EPC FAN]

I'll add general appearance. I'll come out of retirement to do for them what I did for FIU (which is like a mini-Beav). Say the word PSU. My resume is over at the PGM facility.

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Very nice. The Beav is a dump compared to that.

 

[Nitt1300]

they want your money, not your opinion

 

[MtNittany]

Very nice. The Beav is a dump compared to that.

This was during installation. All the turf is surrounded by hand rails (you can see some of them in the pics). No one ever steps foot on the turf really. They used to have large rocks in there - probably 57 stone. When they held soccer games, the different country's fans would bring the rocks into the stadium to throw at opposing players, so this was the solution.

 

[94LionsFan]

I have seats in the very top row in EDU. I don’t deal with the upper concourse at halftime. Here’s my MO:
1. Don’t wait until the clock hits :00 to leave. It’s usually possible to beat the rush to get to concessions without missing anything important (usually some time in the last 30 secs).
2. Walk down to ground level rather than stay up on the upper concourse.
3. If I want to both get food and take a leak, I get in line for food first.

Following these rules I usually have time to eat my food at a table on ground level and get back up to my seat in plenty of time.

 

[rudedude]

Just some info:
Use the escalators to go down to the ground level. After the first quarter, they run one up and one down until the fourth quarter. By our section, EJ, there is a new large spacious self serve vending area, go there. Saturday we stayed until end of the game, went down the escalators, walked to the shuttle spot, got back to our vehicle and got down the hill and out from Lot 34 without an issue. They appeared to have opened up another egress out of Lot 34 further down the road on Orchard which probably eliminates the clog of one lane going down the hill with a vast amount of folks trying to get into line to get out. It was the quickest out of the lot for a night game ever.

 

[rudedude]

I will also add that, in my experience, the folks that like to hang at the tailgate until the last minute jam things up, particularly when trying to get into their seats when a row is packed. Then there are the clueless folks who don’t know how to read section signs and the clearly marked row #s on the ends of the bleachers benches, and remember, odd seats to right even seats to left!
To me, the worst safety issue is lack of wifi and cell service in the stadium. Yeah ok, text this number and your seat section and number to get assistance. Not if you can’t get a signal!!

 

[Achowalogan]

Went to the Bowling Green game, first game attended in some time. No problems with infrastructure…my biggest irritation was/is a big slice of the completely clueless, inconsiderate, uneducated fans….plenty of money to spend on a good time, with little interest or knowledge of what is happening on the field…and the beer is a problem. A merry go round of people in and out of their seats all game long.

Guy in front of me had 6 16 ounce cans and potty breaks. I’m 66, don’t eat/drink during the game and stay at my seat. If you want to eat/drink, go to a restaurant instead of a football game.

I liked the addition of the tv guy with the big led clock for the 2:20 minute time-out. Easy for everyone to see. Just after a time out, with 4th and short and just as play resuming, the 4 clueless clowns in front me stood up to go for a break…I mentioned the timeout, and the clueless guy beside me says, I never thought about that.

I spend time and money to go to the game to enjoy watching the game, I am really in the minority.

And all the over weight folks should be buying 2 tickets cause their butts sure don’t fit in 1 seat.

 

[Pennst8]

Its true that building is a safety nightmare.

Name one event that occurred causing people to be hurt in the last 30 years? Your opinion means absolutely nothing.

 

[saturdaysarebetter]

For all the engineers Penn State has produced, the egress and flow design of some of the men's restrooms in Beaver Stadium is mind boggling.

 

[BobPSU92]

Bear in mind that the stadium renovations have only just begun. In time, we will have ropes hanging from the upper levels to allow for quick egress to the ground below in the event of an emergency.

 

[TheBigUglies]

Bear in mind that the stadium renovations have only just begun. In time, we will have ropes hanging from the upper levels to allow for quick egress to the ground below in the event of an emergency.

I thought it would be more like firemen's poles or sliding boards?

 

[BobPSU92]

I thought it would be more like firemen's poles or sliding boards?

You don’t get those amenities for $700 MM.

 

[TheBigUglies]

Went to the Bowling Green game, first game attended in some time. No problems with infrastructure…my biggest irritation was/is a big slice of the completely clueless, inconsiderate, uneducated fans….plenty of money to spend on a good time, with little interest or knowledge of what is happening on the field…and the beer is a problem. A merry go round of people in and out of their seats all game long.

Guy in front of me had 6 16 ounce cans and potty breaks. I’m 66, don’t eat/drink during the game and stay at my seat. If you want to eat/drink, go to a restaurant instead of a football game.

I liked the addition of the tv guy with the big led clock for the 2:20 minute time-out. Easy for everyone to see. Just after a time out, with 4th and short and just as play resuming, the 4 clueless clowns in front me stood up to go for a break…I mentioned the timeout, and the clueless guy beside me says, I never thought about that.

I spend time and money to go to the game to enjoy watching the game, I am really in the minority.

And all the over weight folks should be buying 2 tickets cause their butts sure don’t fit in 1 seat.

I think this is a generational thing(people can't sit still during games). When I go to sporting events(or other events) I like to watch the game and feel no need to get up and down 50 times during the event. You pay all that money to go and watch but they spend half the time up and down getting food or what not. This is the main reason I avoid going to live events anymore because I pay the money to go and enjoy the event, not for the food or booze.

 

[Bison13]

You don’t get those amenities for “only” $700 MM.

Fify

 

[PSUJam]

Bear in mind that the stadium renovations have only just begun. In time, we will have ropes hanging from the upper levels to allow for quick egress to the ground below in the event of an emergency.

You're late to the party.

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[Taycro]

I have seats in the very top row in EDU. I don’t deal with the upper concourse at halftime. Here’s my MO:
1. Don’t wait until the clock hits :00 to leave. It’s usually possible to beat the rush to get to concessions without missing anything important (usually some time in the last 30 secs).
2. Walk down to ground level rather than stay up on the upper concourse.
3. If I want to both get food and take a leak, I get in line for food first.

Following these rules I usually have time to eat my food at a table on ground level and get back up to my seat in plenty of time.

Thank you for the tip! I'll try it out next time

 

[Taycro]

[deleted]

 

[CDLionFL]

I liked the addition of the tv guy with the big led clock for the 2:20 minute time-out. Easy for everyone to see. Just after a time out, with 4th and short and just as play resuming, the 4 clueless clowns in front me stood up to go for a break…I mentioned the timeout, and the clueless guy beside me says, I never thought about that.

This is where being a 'smart' fan comes into play. You watch a ton of games on TV, you should know that they'll go to commercial at some point after a change of possession. If I wanted/needed to get up, as soon as there was a change or a score, I'd immediately look for the 'red hat' and when he started moving toward the field, I'd make a break for it. Given the length of TV timeouts nowadays, if you do it right (and you're closer to the aisle), you can get out and back before the next play. Same goes with basketball -- they have the same TV timeout structure (under 16, under 12, etc) so that first whistle under that point, get a head start and get moving.

 

[LB99]

Went to the Bowling Green game, first game attended in some time. No problems with infrastructure…my biggest irritation was/is a big slice of the completely clueless, inconsiderate, uneducated fans….plenty of money to spend on a good time, with little interest or knowledge of what is happening on the field…and the beer is a problem. A merry go round of people in and out of their seats all game long.

Guy in front of me had 6 16 ounce cans and potty breaks. I’m 66, don’t eat/drink during the game and stay at my seat. If you want to eat/drink, go to a restaurant instead of a football game.

I liked the addition of the tv guy with the big led clock for the 2:20 minute time-out. Easy for everyone to see. Just after a time out, with 4th and short and just as play resuming, the 4 clueless clowns in front me stood up to go for a break…I mentioned the timeout, and the clueless guy beside me says, I never thought about that.

I spend time and money to go to the game to enjoy watching the game, I am really in the minority.

And all the over weight folks should be buying 2 tickets cause their butts sure don’t fit in 1 seat.

And to think that at one point many years ago when the idea of expansion came up, Paterno suggested just making the seats smaller to accommodate more people. I’m not a big person and I barely fit in a seat as it is because of the reason you stated.

 

[Psumatt85]

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"PSU laughs at fan safety and just wants your money!!!" - Such an idiotic statement.

But accurate

 

[manatree]

To me, the worst safety issue is lack of wifi and cell service in the stadium. Yeah ok, text this number and your seat section and number to get assistance. Not if you can’t get a signal!!

One could argue that if more people actually watched the game instead of their phones, there would be no wifi or cell service problem.

Now get the bleep off my lawn ya filthy animal!

 

[rudedude]

One could argue that if more people actually watched the game instead of their phones, there would be no wifi or cell service problem.

Now get the bleep off my lawn ya filthy animal!

Well without cell service and wifi phones can stay stashed!

 

[Pennst8]

But accurate

Uh, no it's not

 

[Pennst8]

Name one event that occurred causing people to be hurt in the last 30 years? Your opinion means absolutely nothing.

 

[PSUSignore]

Just some info:
Use the escalators to go down to the ground level. After the first quarter, they run one up and one down until the fourth quarter. By our section, EJ, there is a new large spacious self serve vending area, go there. Saturday we stayed until end of the game, went down the escalators, walked to the shuttle spot, got back to our vehicle and got down the hill and out from Lot 34 without an issue. They appeared to have opened up another egress out of Lot 34 further down the road on Orchard which probably eliminates the clog of one lane going down the hill with a vast amount of folks trying to get into line to get out. It was the quickest out of the lot for a night game ever.

Good info. Last year for the Iowa whiteout we parked in 34 and it took us well over an hour just to get out of the lot.

 

[NittPicker]

Bear in mind that the stadium renovations have only just begun. In time, we will have ropes hanging from the upper levels to allow for quick egress to the ground below in the event of an emergency.

That would be a great idea for those who wanted to give it a go.