Chicago— Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft is, by his own description a competitive person so it should go as no surprise that he wants Beaver Stadium to be the biggest in college football.
“It’s a minor detail, but yeah, I’m a competitive person,” Kraft told members of the Penn State beat at Big Ten Media Day. “More importantly, it gives it gives our fan base. I mean, we have we can have more fans in the building, which is awesome. More opportunity to come to a Penn State game, but I also think it adds to the environment that we have.”
Beaver Stadium will have 109,000+ capacity for the upcoming season as construction continues throughout the stadium.
“This year, I had no idea that we were going to be able to do it, but the construction was so on time and on point that we were moving on the bleachers,” Kraft said. “That’s why we were like, ‘Well, I know we’re going to be at this number, and we’ve also found little areas along the in the building that we can we can maximize, and they’re actually really good seats, and so we’re able to put those on the market.'”
Kraft’s competitiveness in selling seats and exploring new areas to generate revenue can be seen throughout the stadium on game days and has been at the forefront of the Beaver Stadium experience since stadium construction began.
“Any seat that I can sell, and I can give a really good experience, we’re going to do that, and so that that all plays into it,” Kraft said.
What number would that be for Kraft?
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I want to be as big as we can be,” Kraft said.
To do that Kraft and company have to be creative as construction continues to meet and exceed their capacity expectations which is the opposite of what many around the country are doing.
“We have the largest citizen ticket base in the country of over 94,000. Our volume, in general, makes Penn State who Penn State is-the alumni, the size of our alumni, the institution itself,” Kraft said. “Why would I limit the capacity and limit the ability for fans to come in and experience a college football game day in Happy Valley? A lot of people are shrinking the size, but I think that’s because they have to. We don’t have to.”
It’s all to increase an impressive game day atmosphere and add to a game day experience in the stadium that provides its own advantage for the Nittany Lions when they’re on the field.
“It’s such an intimidating presence on the field the way it is,” Kraft said. “We’re closer to the field on the on the west, and the magnitude and the size and the sound will just, it’ll make an intimidating environment even more intimidating so that’s what really excites me is to get the energy in there.”
