Penn State Receives 5th Major Gift Toward Beaver Stadium Renovation

State College - beaver stadium west exterior

A preliminary design rendering of the planned west exterior as part of Beaver Stadium’s $700-million renovation. Image by Populous | Courtesy of Penn State Athletics

By

Seth Engle

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September 24, 2024 – 12:49 pm

Penn State has received its fifth major contribution toward the $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium. Playfly Sports, the athletic department’s new multimedia partner, has donated $5 million to the project.

That brings the renovation’s publicly announced fundraising total to $60.25 million, with a leading gift of $25 million from the Misitano family and PAM Health.

“As a Pennsylvania-based company, Playfly Sports understands the economic and cultural significance Beaver Stadium and Penn State Football hold in our community, region and state,” athletic director Pat Kraft said in a statement. “Their generosity will have a lasting impact on all 31 of our sports programs as these renovations play a critical role in increasing revenue to support all of Penn State Athletics.”

Preliminary work on the stadium renovation project began this summer, with major construction planned to begin after the 2024 season and continue until the summer of 2027.

Penn State has also received $10 million gifts for the project from two anonymous donors and former trustee Ira Lubert.

Playfly replaced Learfield as the athletic department’s multimedia rights partner in January. And on Monday, Morgyn Seigfried was announced as the general manager for Playfly Sports Max at Penn State.

Seigfried will “oversee NIL revenue generation on behalf of Penn State Athletics, securing commercial NIL partnership agreements and developing comprehensive strategies to grow new income streams for the athletic department,” the university said in a statement.

“We have only begun to scratch the surface of the opportunities this relationship between Playfly Sports and Penn State Athletics will generate,” said Playfly President Christy Hedgpeth. “The Beaver Stadium Revitalization project, spearheaded by Pat (Kraft), proves the deep commitment the athletics department has for its student-athletes, alumni, donors and fans, and we at Playfly couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of it.”