Penn State board votes to spend $700 million to renovate Beaver Stadium

The governing board of Pennsylvania State University approved an up to $700 million renovation of iconic Beaver Stadium on Tuesday, saying the work would propel the football team, the college, and the surrounding community into the future.

“It is vital,” university president Neeli Bendapudi said. “The time is now to move forward.”

Two board members voted no, three abstained, and 26 supported the project.

The renovation would widen concourses and add more restrooms, concession areas, and luxury seating — the last a key ingredient for pro and college teams seeking additional revenues.

It would also pay for a welcome center for students visiting campus at admissions time, making the 106,000-seat stadium the front door to the university, and provide space for community events. The work would enable the college to hold more dollar-producing concerts and other entertainment beyond football, school officials said.

University leaders said no taxpayer or tuition money would go to the project under their plan. The cost would be borne by university athletics, primarily the football program, which currently pays most of the cost for 31 teams comprising about 800 athletes.

The renovation encompasses three phases over the course of the next three football offseasons. Completion would come before the 2027 season.

University Park, the largest campus in the statewide Penn State system, serves about 46,000 undergraduates. The university educates more Pennsylvania students than any single institution in the state and has more than 380,000 alumni living in Pennsylvania.

The university would pay for the stadium project by issuing bonds. Paying back the $700 million over a 30-year timeline would ultimately cost $1.28 billion, according to Sara Thorndike, the school’s senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer.

She said, however, that the school would issue debt only as money was needed, to allow newly built areas to help pay for future construction, and ultimately hoped not to issue all $700 million worth of bonds. The plan, she said, aimed to spend carefully and conservatively.

The cost of replacing Beaver Stadium, which the university considered, would be about $2 billion, making renovation a more attractive and less expensive option, according to Thorndike and other officials.

Tuesday’s board meeting was at times contentious, with an effort to delay the decision voted down.

Board member Anthony Lubrano noted that the University of Nebraska, known for its record number of football-game sellouts, has tabled further work on a planned $450 million renovation at Memorial Stadium. Other board members mentioned how college sports face uncertainty around interest rates, ticket sales, and player compensation.

“I want to support this project, but I want to feel comfortable,” Lubrano said, before ultimately voting no.

Board member Barry Fenchak told colleagues and the Penn State community this month: “I have researched this proposal at length and done the math. We can’t afford it.”

He described the $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation as by far the largest capital expenditure in Penn State athletics history and one of the largest in the history of college sports.

Since last year, when an initial renovation expenditure of $70 million was approved, work has concentrated on widening select concourses and installing new escalators and field lighting. A winterization plan aims to allow the stadium to host events at the coldest times.

“There’s no question Beaver Stadium needs a facelift,” Lubrano said before the final vote. “The only question is how much we want to spend.”