Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/590325
NEWS & NOTES Beaver Stadium is still standing. The Penn State football team's historic home field may have needed some grounds- keeping attention after a rainy five- game homestand (see Page 9), but oth- erwise, it weathered the storm – just as it has done over the course of 55 years and seven major renovation projects. The last time the Nittany Lions played five consecutive home games was 1922, 38 years before the current stadium was erected. The stresses involved in playing so many games in a span of only 29 days, coupled with the knowledge that Penn State had already begun formulating a facilities master plan to address its needs in the coming years, inspired con- siderable speculation about the stadi- um's future. On Oct. 1, that speculation entered a new phase, as Penn State announced that it was partnering with Populous, a Kansas City-based architecture and sport-event planning firm, to help shape the master plan. The facilities initiative is part of a larger strategic planning ef- fort aimed at helping Penn State set pri- orities for the next five years and be- yond. The report is expected to be com- plete by July. One priority for athletic director Sandy Barbour is to find a way of pre- serving the current stadium rather than starting anew somewhere else on cam- pus. "That would absolutely be my pref- erence," she said during a recent appear- ance on WBLF's "Zone Coverage" pro- gram. "There's no doubt about it – for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are history and tradition." Populous is familiar with Beaver Sta- dium, having overseen the facility's most recent expansion project, which added 60 skyboxes and an 11,500-seat upper deck to the south end zone in 2001. The firm has more than three decades of experience designing what the university termed in a news release "innovative, forward-looking facilities that create a memorable and authentic fan experience while enhancing revenue generation opportunities." Populous has A D M I N I S T R A T I O N PSU enlists design firm to help plan facilities future Barbour favors Beaver Stadium renovation ' BIRD'S EYE VIEW Penn State is examining all of its athletic fa- cilities as part of a compre- hensive planning process that includes input from the Popu- lous design firm. Photo by An- nemarie Mountz