‘Handful’ of COVID-19 violations reported over Penn State football weekend that drew much concern
State College was tame Saturday during Penn State’s prime-time home opener, a borough spokesperson said Sunday.
One gathering of about 50 people was reported to borough police and there were a “handful” of citations handed out for COVID-19 violations, but there was little more harm done, Douglas Shontz said.
There was ample parking, meaning the borough wasn’t inundated with visitors.
“Actually a good weekend,” Shontz said. “Nothing to note.”
Centre County residents wondered for weeks what the weekend might look like, with a late big football game coinciding with Halloween. Fears weren’t allayed during the Nittany Lions’ season opener, when three large parties were reported at off-campus apartment complexes.
But some concerns ended up unfounded. That was beneficial for mitigating the potential spread of the new coronavirus, but bad for businesses on what has traditionally been one of the biggest revenue weekends of the year.
Hotels in Centre County were running at about 30% occupancy and about 17% of Airbnb properties were booked as of Thursday, Happy Valley Adventure Bureau President and CEO Fritz Smith said.
Businesses that typically pull in hundreds of thousands during Penn State’s White Out weekend generated 10%-15% of that total instead, Downtown State College Improvement District Executive Director Rob Schmidt said Sunday.
Losses among restaurants and retailers had to be “in the millions,” Schmidt said.
“I think the hype far exceeded what we saw. I think, in many ways, the hype may have scared some people off,” Schmidt said. “The feedback I’ve received from the weekend and the observations I made yesterday and today was it was below what most of the October weekends have been.”