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<p>Major change is coming to Beaver Stadium. There just isn&#8217;t a date for it yet.</p><p>Penn State made it official on Monday morning, announcing that the home of Nittany Lions football will see &#8220;extensive renovations,&#8221; including more room in the bleachers and in the concourses along with improved amenities. The exterior of the stadium will also be getting a brick and limestone facelift, covering the exposed girders that have defined the venue.</p><p>Deputy athletic director Phil Esten estimated that the seating capacity, as a result of the changes, will go from &#8220;roughly 107,000 to roughly 103,000.&#8221;</p><p>A timeframe for the project has not been set, only that it will not begin in the next five years, which is the first phase of a 20-year campus-wide facilities plan by the athletic department that was unveiled Monday.</p><p>Financing is the main reason there are not fixed dates for the start of the overhaul of Beaver Stadium and several other projects.</p><p>&#8220;This is an aspirational plan &#8212; we&#8217;ll ultimately build what we can afford,&#8221; athletic director Sandy Barbour said at a public presentation on Monday afternoon. &#8220;We&#8217;ll rely heavily on philanthropy. We&#8217;ll use (athletic department) capital, debt financing, student fees where the project is appropriate and potential public and private partnerships.&#8221;</p><p>Barbour said multiple times over the past year that her preference was to renovate Beaver Stadium, which moved to its current location back in 1960, rather than replace it.</p><p>She said that she agreed with her Ohio State counterpart, Gene Smith, that the days of colleges trying to one-up each other with seating capacity are over, putting the focus on fan comfort instead.</p><p>According to Penn State, that means &#8220;a significant increase in chairback seating, new concessions locations and food options, new restrooms, wider concourses and additional premium seating options.&#8221;</p><p>When the new Beaver Stadium plan does eventually begin, Penn State estimates it will take &#8220;three or four&#8221; offseasons to complete, with work taking place December through August and then pausing for the actual season.</p><p>Esten cited Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s Kyle Field, which recently underwent a similar multi-phase upgrade, as a model for Penn State to study. That project, however, was done over just 18 months at a reported cost of $485 million.</p><p>The preliminary design plan for Beaver Stadium shows why Penn State&#8217;s undertaking will likely take longer.</p><p>Aside from the cosmetic changes outside, the suites on the east end of the stadium would be taken down and moved into the bowl.</p><p>&#8220;It makes us able to keep the capacity up,&#8221; said Mark Bodenschatz, associate athletic director for facilities and operations. &#8220;This provides us the ability to have a symmetric stadium. (The suites) move down from being skyboxes to two levels lower, making them closer to the field horizontally and vertically.&#8221;</p><p>The stadium&#8217;s footprint would also expand as the gross square footage goes from an existing 1.2 million square feet to roughly 1.7 million at the end of the project.</p><p>With some existing parking spaces being affected by the expansion, the university would also build a two-story parking deck between Beaver Stadium and the Jeffery Field soccer facility to compensate.</p><p>Before then, the school&#8217;s initial athletics upgrades will be a renovation of Jeffery Field as well as new construction of a natatorium, an indoor tennis facility, a general indoor practice facility and a &#8220;Center of Excellence,&#8221; a 450,000-square foot facility which will serve as a training hub for all sports. It is slated to be built on the East Area Locker Room site.</p><p>Also scheduled for future renovations after the initial five years are the Bryce Jordan Center for basketball as well as the venues for Penn State softball, field hockey, lacrosse and indoor track.</p><p>Though there are no details for a plan for the Jordan Center, the school has been looking for a way to bring the fans closer to the court in the cavernous building.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s safe to say there could be improvements in the environment for basketball,&#8221; Esten said. &#8220;We want to make renovations and modifications to the Bryce Jordan Center to better accommodate the atmosphere we&#8217;d like to see.&#8221;</p><p>New projects include an outdoor track as well as practice facilities for basketball, cross country and golf, as well as a parking structure west of Beaver Stadium.</p><p>Some 17 months in the making, the full plan was originally scheduled to be announced to the public last summer. The release was delayed multiple times to give Penn State &#8220;flexibility&#8221; to make changes to a few of the bigger projects, according to Barbour.</p><p>&#8220;Whether it was a month or a six month-delay, it was about getting it right for the next couple of decades,&#8221; Barbour said.</p><p><ins>For other sports stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/sports" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><p><iframe style="border: 1px solid #777;" src="https://indd.adobe.com/embed/aec1b213-3dda-4fbf-a298-88a21cd141db?startpage=1&amp;allowFullscreen=true" height="525px" width="100%"></iframe></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Following a renovation, fans will have more room at Beaver Stadium, which will remain above a capacity of 100,000. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_AP_35020620574220173138287857-10.jpg</photo0><caption0>Following a renovation, fans will have more room at Beaver Stadium, which will remain above a capacity of 100,000. </caption0><photoCredit0>Gene J. Puskar | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_PSU-Aerial-1-02017313164453740-5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State rendering of what Beaver Stadium will look like after a multi-year upgrade is completed includes work on the exterior as well as the interior. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_PSU-Aerial-1-02017313164453740-5.jpg</photo1><caption1>Penn State rendering of what Beaver Stadium will look like after a multi-year upgrade is completed includes work on the exterior as well as the interior. </caption1><photoCredit1>Penn State Athletics </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>ON THE WEB</strong></p><p>To see video of Penn State officials discussing the facilities project and to read the full plan, see this story online at tlgets.me/khp.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">XUowCIiaESc</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUowCIiaESc</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;">Penn State Athletics</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Penn State announces future plans to renovate Beaver Stadium