STATE COLLEGE — Iconic Beaver Stadium has been around since 1960. And Penn State AD Pat Kraft intends to make sure the current home of the Nittany Lions is the future home of the program.
Renovation is the word to associate with Beaver Stadium moving forward. Kraft also made it clear that building a new stadium would be extremely difficult.
“To build a new stadium, there’s a threshold,” Kraft said Friday during Penn State bowl media day.
“Let me just put it this way: To build new anywhere, it’s expensive.
“We have some numbers. But if you’re building new … we are very proud of having 107,000 (fans) … (but) no one’s building a 100,000-seat stadium.”
Kraft, who in his first year as the Lions’ AD, said there have been numerous studies on Beaver Stadium renovation done in previous years, but he expects to have an official recommendation for Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi and the university’s Board of Trustees soon.
“So, we’re close,” Kraft said. “We had a study that was done. There’s a lot of studies going on. I mean, there were 19 studies done on the stadium, (and) nothing was done.
“It’s not for a lack of information. “I will tell you this: I feel very comfortable … that we will have a recommendation to Neeli and the board as to what direction we need to move in.
“I make no bones about it, I love this building, I love coming (into) this building. “Beaver Stadium, I love the history of this building. … I wanna make this building better and we have to do that.”
