Penn State Football: Franklin Touches On Beaver Stadium Capacity

With the future of Beaver Stadium a talking point as Penn State looks to formulate a facilities master plan for the future, James Franklin was asked Tuesday about changing the capacity of the stadium in exchange for larger seating.

“I don’t know. I think it all depends on where we’re at with attendance,” Franklin said during his weekly press conference. “We’d love to have 107,000 in the stadium week in and week out. We’ve got great support from our people. The challenge is the amenities. We want to make sure we provide the amenities to provide a great gameday environment within the stadium. We’ve hired some people who are experts in these areas.”

So far this season Penn State has averaged just 98,529 fans over the span of just six games. That’s a figure down from last year although the final game of the home slate against Michigan will undoubtedly boost that average. The Nittany Lions’ fairly unremarkable home schedule and several rainy afternoons not doing attendance any favors either.

For Franklin though the key is to improve the fan experience, not lower the capacity of the stadium. If you can create reasons for the fans to come, they will, and they will fills the seats. Clearly winning is the biggest thing to change the trend in attendance for any program as well as scheduling meaningful games. Penn State will host three teams next season currently in the AP Top 10.

“Would you love to provide all the amenities you can, as well as keeping it at 107,000 and selling out every single week? Yeah,” Franklin said. “That’s the perfect situation for all involved.”

Penn State is set to host the third and final Town Hall meeting with Athletic Director Sandy Barbour this Wednesday at 7 PM at Rec Hall.

Attendees will hear about some of the initial findings of a wide-ranging strategic planning project and have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. The project will help determine strategies and priorities for the period of 2016-20 and beyond for the Nittany Lions’ comprehensive 31-sport program. After each of the first two presentations, Barbour answered questions for more than 30 minutes on a wide range of topics, including the town and gown relationship, student-athlete experience, facilities, metrics to gauge success and the Nittany Lion Fan Council.

So it’s safe to say step one will be improving the state of the bathrooms and not decreasing the number of seats.

But right now, Penn State is focused on Northwestern.