This story was updated following approval by the full Board of Trustees
The Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning on Thursday afternoon recommended to approve a proposed budget of not more than $7.5 million renovation and upgrade project for Holuba Hall and the Lasch outdoor football practice fields on Thursday afternoon.
The full Board of Trustees gave approval on Friday afternoon.
“This project will significantly improve practice conditions and technology with various practice and support equipment and field infrastructure,” Bill Sitzabee, Penn State vice president for facilities management said.
The project scope includes a permanent video board and sound system at the outdoor practice fields that will make possible “gameday-like simulations,” along with play clocks, goal posts and end zone netting at the artificial turf field.
It also will include addition of a video board, sound system and filming cameras inside Holuba Hall.
“The upgrades will also provide better video to record practices for the team assessments,” Sitzabee said.
Mounted camera platforms and audio upgrades will enhance safety by eliminating the need for lifts, Sitzabee added, and live video and “lifelike crowd noises” will enhance practice conditions. Additional infrastructure will be installed to support future upgrades.
In addition to football, at least 11 other Penn State sports utilize Holuba Hall’s indoor facilities throughout the year, including four that play games there in the winter and early spring when necessary. Other programs also use the facility, including sports camps during the summer.
Senior Vice President for Finance & Business/Treasurer Sara Thorndike said the project would be funded by Athletic Department debt that will be serviced by a previously established Intercollegiate Athletics’ endowment fund and would not use taxpayer or tuition funding. Penn State Athletics operates on a self-sufficient budget structure and has historically funded most of its facility and infrastructure projects through philanthropy.
Friday’s approval came and went with far less fanfare than a 2021 project to expand the Lasch Building, which was earmarked for $48 million and was met with some pushback by a handful of trustees members who caution against spending in the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trustee and former Penn State football Brandon Short had some pointed words about those who might oppose this project on Friday. (Of note, the trustees who voted against the $48 million Lasch expansion in 2021 were alumni trustees Jay Paterno, Anthony Lubrano, Alice Pope and Laurie Stanell [no longer on the board] and ex officio members Cynthia Dunn, the state secretary of conservation and natural resources and Noe Ortega, the former acting secretary of education who is no longer on the board.
“This resolution is a follow-on to the renovations from Lasch a few years ago where several trustees voted against that expansion,” Short said. “To fast forward today, construction costs have increased by 50% and the cost of borrowing has doubled. So in other words if we had followed those trustees’ recommendations it would cost us twice as much today to do that same project.
“There’s a small group of trustees that have been actively working to undermine the Athletic Department — openly voting against necessary spending and pushing the university forward, and quietly disparaging our administrators, questioning the character of our coaches, and even our student-athletes. Now it appears that some of those trustees are taking a very different public stance. The whisper campaign to undermine our athletic department needs to stop because undermining our athletic department is undermining the entire university.”
An additional trustee opined that Penn State should be in the habit of raising funds prior to building and not the other way around. It was announced that the project would be funded by a previously established endowment.
“This endowment that was set up in 2007 is for expenditure at the discretion of the head coach,” Paterno said. “So there’s really not much we can do other than allow him to do what he wants to do and needs to do. In that regard this has been handled by philanthropy… This is a philanthropic investment.”
The indoor practice facility has undergone a handful of more minor changes and upgrades in recent years. If approved, the Philadelphia branch of the design firm HOK would take on the latest project. HOK has worked with Penn State Athletics in the past, most recently in conjunction with the completed and ongoing Lasch Building renovations. The project will mark the first substantial facilities undertaking by new Athletic Director Patrick Kraft.
In a similar vein, Penn State football reported $6.1 million in debt servicing during the most recent fiscal year – having historically reported well less than $100,000 in the same area in recent years. Former Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour had noted previously that Penn State’s recently completed Lasch Building upgrades – which was earmarked for a $48 million budget – would include some elements debt servicing. How much of that $6.1 is related to that project is unknown. A second project funded under debt servicing rather than philanthropy could lead to some debate on a Board of Trustees that did not unanimously side with the previous – albeit larger scale – project.
