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F O O T B A L L PSU eager to see crowds return to Beaver Stadium what did we learn from that experience? What are we going to continue to do, even after the pandemic, and add to our game? What did we learn personally? What did we learn professionally? What did we learn as an organization? What did we learn as individuals in our roles, and how can we grow from it? I'm not somebody who takes things for granted. But I will say that it was a tremendous reminder of just how blessed we are, in so many ways. So many things that we're used to were taken away from us. So I think in a lot of ways, it's probably a good reset for a lot of people in not taking things for granted and being appreciative of what you have and who you are, and who you're with. But even just things like Zoom. Why were we not taking advantage of this be- fore? It makes no sense. Where you didn't connect with somebody because it wasn't worth driving or flying out to see them, and you just didn't do it because of that, or you're on vacation and I'm wor- ried about the players back in State Col- lege. It distracts you. People are going to say when you're on vacation, you need to be on vacation. But if I'm on vacation and I'm worried about what's going on in State College, then you're not as con- nected as you should be with your family when you're with them. If I can get on a call and just do a 10-minute team meet- ing on a Sunday night and check in with the guys and make sure everybody is doing OK and give them a message, now I feel like after that call is over I can spend the next couple of days with my family and be more locked into them. I think there are some real balances to it. I also think recruiting nationally, a kid who has never seen Penn State, we have the ability to show them Penn State now in a virtual way, and we could have been When Penn State allowed freshman students into a practice session at Beaver Stadium on April 17, the Nittany Lions got to relive the experience of playing before a crowd, while those first-year students had an opportunity to enjoy a football Saturday for the first time. It wasn't a conventional football Saturday, even by spring standards, and it wasn't a very big crowd. But given the circumstances, James Franklin consid- ered it a win-win. "We were fortunate to be able to get 7,500 fans in there," he said, "and I will tell you what: After not having any fans all season long, it felt like 275,000. It was great having the energy of the freshman class in there and getting them to expe- rience some of Beaver Stadium." Come September, Penn State's players, coaches and fans will get the full Beaver Stadium experience. The university an- nounced on June 1 that the stadium would be at full capacity during the up- coming academic year. And not just Beaver Stadium, but all of PSU's athletic venues, indoor and outdoor. The announcement came shortly after Pennsylvania lifted a range of restric- tions that had been put in place to re- duce the spread of COVID-19. Athletic director Sandy Barbour said the timing was intentional. Penn State officials "felt that it was appropriate for us to make this announcement on the first day – the first official day – of the gov- ernor's lifting of all mitigations, includ- ing the capacity restrictions," she said June 2 during an appearance on the Coaches Caravan videoconference. "Frankly, we just wanted to make sure that there was no going back and we could move forward with ticketing, do- nations, parking, everything that goes with a Penn State football game without having to take steps back should there be changes in the guidance. As we learned in 2020, that's difficult to unwind." Beaver Stadium wasn't entirely empty last season. The university allowed the relatives of players and staff to attend games, and the official attendance for each of PSU's five home games was 1,500. This past spring, the university held two open practices in which a limited number of fans were allowed to attend. Six days after the freshman-students- only practice, the stadium gates swung open again. Attendance was initially limited to seniors but was later opened to the general public. No official atten- dance was listed for the second practice. This coming fall, in addition to allowing the stadium to be filled to 100 percent of its 106,572-seat capacity, the university will allow tailgating in the adjacent park- ing lots, and other game day traditions are set to resume, such as the greeting of the team buses outside the south entrance. However, the game day experience will differ in some ways from years past. For example, the university is eliminating paper tickets in favor of mobile passes in order to eliminate points of physical contact. Also, Penn State is requiring that unvaccinated fans wear masks at all times in university buildings. As of mid-June, Pennsylvania's rate of new COVID cases was down to 380 per day. Just over 60 percent of the state's 12.8 million residents had received at least one vaccine dose, while 47 percent were fully vaccinated. After a year marred by lockdown or- ders and other restrictions, Barbour hailed the return of capacity crowds as a positive step that will help the university and community recover. "It's great news," she said. "The state and the university and local governments all agree that full capacity is where we'll be this fall, and we're moving forward full steam ahead." –MATT HERB

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