Penn State Board of Trustees set meeting for May 21 to approve Beaver Stadium renovation plan
Penn State could take the next step toward renovating Beaver Stadium two weeks from today. The university’s Board of Trustees and its subcommittee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning will hold a conference call meeting on May 21 at 10 a.m. According to an online agenda, the purpose of the meeting will be “Proposed Project Approval, Beaver Stadium Renovation.” The University had a bid date of Feb. 15, 2024 for trade and bid packages. It hired Populas Architecture out of Kansas City earlier this year to lead the design aspect of the project. Now, it’s ready to lock in the rest of the plan.
“The primary scope of the Beaver Stadium renovation is on the stadium’s West Side,” the Penn State project description says. “This approach would replace the current West Side of the stadium and provide improved access for broadcasting, greatly improved circulation, new restrooms, upgraded concession offerings, and much-needed premium seating. Included with the West Side replacement are much-needed miscellaneous improvements of the North, East, and South, as listed below. These combined projects will greatly enhance the fan experience and safety and provide significant incremental revenue to fund these improvements.”
Blue-White Illustrated first reported the school’s intention to renovate the 107,000-seat stadium instead of building a new structure back in April of 2023. The school then confirmed that plan in May of last year. Work will begin after this season. And, it should be done in its entirety before the 2027 season. The expected price tag is in the ballpark of $700 million.
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“To get it done in the four-year window, the goal would be to do all the enabling projects right after this season: the winterization and get the design going and some of the stuff,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said last summer. “Then, the next season, you will be done with design. You still got to go to the board and do all those steps, but then you’re going right after, hopefully, the playoff game in [Dec. 2024]. Then you’re off to the races.”
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Kraft offered his most recent update on the project back in January.
This is major, major project,” Kraft said then. “Literally 30 percent is like, where are the pipes going, where do you got circulation? So that one is ongoing. We feel really good about where we are headed, but literally … there is not a thing we are not evaluating in this process. As you can see with Luke Combs [which was in late April], we have to use this building more. I would sign up right here for a hockey game in this building, you know, today. Like everything else, just takes a lot of moving parts and working with the NHL.
“But I think there’s a great opportunity to do that, yes, and we are open. They know that we are open it. But we have got to continue to use this build to go generate revenue.”
