Penn State Athletics announces a return to full capacity for Beaver Stadium in 2021
Penn State’s Beaver Stadium will officially return to full capacity this fall, starting with the football team’s Sept. 11 home opener against Ball State, the athletic department announced Tuesday afternoon.
The decision comes after the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the 2020 season, when attendance at the world’s fourth-largest stadium was limited to family members and guests of coaches, players and staff members. That means September’s home opener will be the first game open to the public since Penn State took on Rutgers on Nov. 30, 2019.
“We are excited to welcome our 107K strong back in Beaver Stadium and full capacity at our other athletics venues this fall with the adjustments in university, local, state and CDC guidance,” Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a written statement.
Including football and other sports, the athletic department lost about $45 million from ticket sales alone during the pandemic. Barbour said in April the usually profitable athletic department operated at about a $35 million loss this fiscal year, so Beaver Stadium’s full reopening — with a capacity of 106,572 — is expected to be a boon to the department’s coffers.
Although the announcement was only made official Tuesday, it’s long been expected.
In April, Penn State’s athletic department sent an email to season ticket holders stating it was “hopeful” the team would play in front of a full Beaver Stadium. Then, in early May, Gov. Tom Wolf visited University Park — shortly after announcing that crowd limitations at stadiums would be lifted on Memorial Day.
Penn State clarified at the time that it could not yet commit to a full-capacity Beaver Stadium. But, since then, the Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia 76ers have announced they’ll expand to 100% capacity later this week, with the Phils slated to do so Friday and the Sixers on Wednesday.
“Our fans are a true homefield advantage for all of our teams, and the 2020-21 season was not the same without them in our venues,” Barbour added. “We are so appreciative of the tremendous support of our donors and fans, especially during these challenging times, to allow us to continue to provide our more than 800 student-athletes with the conditions they need for success!”
Fans should largely notice a return to normalcy at Beaver Stadium, including the return of tailgating and pre-game festivities such as the team arrival. But there will be some changes, most notably that Penn State Athletics will “fully” transition to mobile ticketing as opposed to paper tickets.
More information on that can be found at GoPSUsports.com/mobiletickets. Season ticket holders will also be notified via email starting next Tuesday that invoices for season tickets and non-refundable seat contributions are available via Account Manager.
Unvaccinated fans are still required to wear masks inside university buildings, although it’s not known how — or if — the university will confirm one’s vaccination status.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Maryland and Michigan have already announced plans to return their stadiums to full capacity this fall.
In Centre County, home to the University Park campus, the pandemic has resulted in nearly 17,000 COVID-19 cases and 224 deaths. More than 7,500 student coronavirus cases have been confirmed by Penn State, and the university has eschewed a vaccine requirement in favor of instead incentivizing it with weekly drawings for $1,000 and the like.
Still, cases and hospitalizations have continued to decline around the area. Centre County saw its COVID rate peak in mid-December, when averaging 121 cases per day. Now, that daily average is down to about 11 cases per day, based on public data aggregated by the New York Times.
Details of single-game ticket presales, public single-game and student ticket sales will be released in the coming weeks.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 2:22 PM.