Penn State AD Pat Kraft announces Beaver Stadium capacity amid construction
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Beaver Stadium will seat 106,304 fans in 2025 despite ongoing renovations.
- Temporary seating met all safety standards after inspections and regulatory approval.
- AD Pat Kraft supports expanding the College Football Playoff to boost season value.
Beaver Stadium has a new capacity (temporarily) as it undergoes construction as part of the renovation project that is underway. The stadium will hold 106,304 fans this season, with that number coming in just under the previous capacity of 106,572.
“That was very important to me and our team,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said at a media availability Tuesday afternoon. “That we did not want anything to get in the way of the greatest environment in college sports.”
The capacity is close to where it usually is thanks to temporary seating on the west side and in the eastern corners of the venue. That seating has come under some fire as rampant social media speculation has led to concerns about the safety of the seating, but Kraft was quick to dispel those issues Tuesday evening, much as he did when he spoke to the Centre Daily Times Monday.
He also outlined a process that included several inspections and meeting safety requirements at all levels.
“The memes have been funny,” Kraft said. “I love all the memes and the creativity out there on the west side bleachers. We have a good laugh in the office. ... So we worked with, like everything at Penn State, the best of the best. ... The structure is safe. It is safe. It’s been looked at. It’s been inspected. L&I, like everything here has to approve any sort of construction process. They’ve signed off. The structure has met code. It’s good to go.”
That includes concerns from fans about what will happen if someone sitting in their section were to drop something — like their phone or keys — into the area beneath the seats.
While Kraft said the opening isn’t like a high school gym, where bleachers have a large gap underneath them, there will be staff members there in case someone does manage to drop a personal item to the bottom.
Despite those types of concerns from some fans, there are seemingly none about the timeline or budget with the $700 million project.
“I have no choice but to be on budget,” Kraft said with a smile. “We’re on budget and we’re on time.”
Potential new playoff formats
The potential expansion of the College Football Playoff has once again become a focus of public discussion after Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti ran the idea of an even larger expansion than what has generally been discussed. While most of the conversation has focused on going from 12 teams to 16 teams, Pettiti’s idea took it even further, suggesting going all the way to 24 or even 28 teams in the CFP.
While that suggestion has been publicly criticized, Kraft backed it on Tuesday.
“Tony is very open with us and we had seen it in a very rough format,” Kraft said. “It’s an interesting concept. I like it, personally. I think it creates a lot of excitement for the regular season.”
It could potentially create value in the regular season — along with excitement — with more big games happening between power conferences because a loss or two would no longer be debilitating in that type of world.
But with any type of expansion comes the question of how teams will be chosen for the playoff. Many potential expansion options include more automatic qualifiers, but there will still inevitably be at-large teams. That means leaving it in the hands of the committee, as it’s currently done, or even potentially going back to a formulaic model that uses rankings to choose teams.
Regardless of what happens, Kraft said there is no perfect model.
“It’s funny, you go back, everyone complained about the BCS computer rankings,” Kraft said. “Now you hear, ‘Let’s go back to that.’ Well, then you don’t have a human voice. I don’t know if there’s a perfect system, but it is hard for that committee to do their job, when we’re measuring so many different factors.”
Quick hitters
- Kraft said the program still has 94,000+ season ticket holders.
- The Penn State AD said scholarships are huge for Olympic sports, with raising money for them being of the utmost importance for the department now that there are no scholarship limits — only roster limits — for NCAA sports.
- Kraft said the evolving world of college athletics, which includes revenue sharing, is one that benefits the Nittany Lions. “I am excited about this new world because it is built for us. It’s built for a power brand like Penn State,” he said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 7:54 PM.
