The Penn State Board of Trustees have made it official: Beaver Stadium has a new name.
From this day forward, the home of Penn State football since 1960 will go by “West Shore Home Field” at Beaver Stadium.
This passed with a 22-8 vote with six members absent for the vote.
Among the eight “nos” were trustees Anthony Lubrano and Jay Paterno, as well as former Penn State players Matt McGloin and Brandon Short.
This is news that will take plenty of Penn State fans some time to get used to, and justifiably so. Beaver Stadium has been Beaver Stadium since before John F. Kennedy was president. At the same time, a change like this felt inevitable. For one, a stadium not being named after a sponsor is increasingly rare by the year.
Considering Penn State is in the process of funding a $700 million dollar “revitalization project” for Beaver Stadium, it kinda makes sense to get some help from a sponsor.
THE PROJECT
This is already a big transition period for Penn State’s home, with PSU being in the middle of a $700 million renovation project. The renovation is slated to be complete before the 2027 football season.
Penn State AD Pat Kraft has said before that he’d be open to changing the name of Beaver Stadium.
In an interview with StateCollege.com last year, Kraft said he would be “open to everything.”
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Last month, Kraft expressed optimism about the project.
“Feel really good about it,” he said. “Fundraising has been awesome. Really excited about that. (The stadium) will have temp seating. Think of Northwestern a little how they built that stadium on the shore. Or (the) Waste Management (Golf Tournament). Those are the people handling it. It’ll look very temporary.”
Kraft said that even with the temporary format, Penn State’s capacity shouldn’t change much, if at all.
He also said there will be a “construction format” but that he doesn’t expect that to create any issues.
“They’ll work throughout the year,” Kraft said.
Kraft said the temporary seating may in fact provide a better view that what the previous West Side of the stadium had.
“Really happy about where it’s going,” Kraft said. “It’s something fans are going to be proud of.”
