Penn State on Friday announced potential plans to consider a project of unspecified scope or cost – pending approval, of course.
Sigh.
However, in making this nowhere-near-definitive announcement during a board of trustees meeting and subsequent media release, university president Neeli Bendapudi confirmed that Beaver Stadium is going to receive a renovation rather than a replacement, which was not exactly surprising but probably nonetheless needed saying. Also of interest in the release was that “the project also has the potential to expand use beyond football game days.”
More on that second part in a bit. As for the big sorta-news, Bendapudi, newly minted athletic director Patrick Kraft, and the various other Penn State administrators who will be involved in the project will have some interesting decisions to make about the future of what has become, for better and worse, one of the most iconic venues in all of sport. And all that might be at stake is the loyalty of one of the largest and most passionate fan bases in the world.
