UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour fielded questions from a crowd of nearly 75 people Wednesday night in Penn State’s Rec Hall and wanted to make clear that decisions about renovating or doing an entire rebuild of Beaver Stadium have not been made and will not be made for several months.
“That’s why we’re doing the study, to understand all of the moving parts and to do the analysis of what again what the two options would look like in the case of Beaver Stadium,” she said.
Penn State’s facilities master plan is slated to be completed by July 2016 and the plan, which is being completed by the Kansas City based architecture firm Populous, will be the road map to determine which of Penn State’s 19 facilities need to be upgraded. Populous’ plan will determine what the needs are for those facilities and how they best advise doing so.
The public comment section of Wednesday’s meeting was dominated by questions about 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium, with topics ranging from the stadium’s sound system and use of the Blue Band to concerns about concession lines, merchandise sales and the seat licensing program.
The idea of renovating or doing a rebuild of a new football stadium — which will be determined by what Populous recommends — has been a hot-button topic since the firm was hired last month.
“We’ll take the feedback from these [town halls], we’ll do the final survey and we’ll have the framework cleaned up by the first of the year,” Barbour said after the town hall. She previously had meetings with the students and with the faculty. “Obviously the facilities master plan it’s going to be a race, but we’re talking about July of ’16.”
All of Penn State’s coaches will have input on what they’d like to see upgraded, and Barbour, who declined to say what specifics suggestions were made, said those discusses were already done in groups and were the first item Populous tended to.
If it’s a reduction in seating capacity that’s recommended by the firm, which could then possibly include more space or seat backs or better in-stadium amenities all contributing to the game-day environment — then Penn State’s decision makers, including Barbour, president Eric Barron and Penn State’s Board of Trustees will all have key decisions to make for all facilities, not just the football stadium that’s getting the “lions’ share” of attention, Barbour said.
Questions did not arise Wednesday night about former football coach Joe Paterno and how of when Penn State plans to honor him, but Barbour did say that it’s a topic she hears about regularly from fans. While there of course won’t be a recommendation from the firm on that item, Barbour said the goal of these town hall meetings was to determine what was on people’s minds and she said it that regard it was a success.
“I hear it all the time, absolutely,” Barbour said when asked about Paterno. “It’s a part of who we are and the question comes up, but I think we’ve also as a university with Dr. Barron’s leadership been very consistent about there will be a time and a place.”
Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter @audsnyder4.
First Published: November 5, 2015, 3:21 a.m.
