PSU Football Tickets

Quick facts:
Beaver Stadium Seating Capacity: 107,282
Seats Available to Students: 21,500 (includes Blue Band)
2007 Home Games: 7
2007 Average Attendance: 108,917
2007 Total Attendance: 762,419 (2^nd in Nation next to scUM)

Beaver Stadium Attendance Records
1. 110,753 Sept. 14, 2002 Penn State 40, Nebraska 7
2. 110,134 October 27, 2007 Ohio State 37, Penn State 17
3. 110,078 September 8, 2007 Penn State 31, Notre Dame 10
4. 110,007 Oct. 14, 2006 Michigan 17, Penn State 10
5. 109,865 Nov. 5, 2005 Penn State 35, Wisconsin 14
6. 109,839 Oct. 8, 2005 Penn State 17, Ohio State 10
7. 109,754 October 13, 2007 Penn State 38, Wisconsin 7
8. 109,467 Oct. 29, 2005 Penn State 33, Purdue 15
9. 109,313 Sept. 1, 2001 Miami (Fla.) 33, Penn State 7
10. 108,951 October 6, 2007 Penn State 27, Iowa 7

Student ticket sales went more smoothly this year, if you got your ticket. I suppose that if you went through the pre-registration process, went online to purchase and then didn't get your ticket, it didn't go smoothly. For instance, the junior class had 8,200 students pre-register for 5,880 tickets available. It didn't go smoothly for about 28% of juniors that pre-registered. I'll assume that that most students that pre-registered wanted tickets.

So the happy side (remember I'm a Happy Jack) is there is no shortage of student enthusiasm. There's also no shortage of alumni and general fan enthusiasm. (See last year's attendance stats above.) On the sad side, there is a shortage of seats in Beaver Stadium.

Time to pull out a little history lesson … Eric Walker succeeded Milton Eisenhower as president of the university in 1956. He shared Eisenhower's goal to make PSU a nationally respected institution of instruction and research. Walker used to tell a story about a conversation he had with a friend, Vannevar Bush, a scientist. Bush said to Walker, "Eric, there are three ways to build a great university. You can build a lot of buildings. You can build a football team. Or you can build a faculty." Walker replied, "I am going to do all three."

There's wisdom in Walker's response. A truly great university is multidimensional; it relies on more than one thing to be great. Football is part of the equation. Football creates an atmosphere where incredible memories are formed. Those incredible memories, not the memories of studying for finals, are maintained for life and provide a strong basis for fund raising. (The alumni association is a topic for another day.)

The line of logic I wish to express is simple. Going to football games = great memories = long term $$$ for the university. Now we have a situation in which 28% of juniors are not able to obtain football tickets (at a reasonable price). Also, given the number of sellouts, there is a huge alumni base that can't afford to obtain football tickets. (The tickets exist, if you are willing to pay for them, but the university realizes no additional monies.)

So what can be done? Here's two ideas … 1.) the obvious – stadium expansion. 2.) alternative venues. First, the stadium expansion. You know it will happen, eventually. The university should start planning now and do it. Do it before (or at the same time) as scUM expands and be bigger and better than THEM. In the expansion – allocate more seats for students. This should be the first and foremost priority. Invest in the future funding stream of the university by creating great memories.

Now the notion of alternative venues … we all know half the fun of going to a game is tailgating, and in reality there are plenty without tickets that continue to tailgate during the game. So off the top of my head, I can think of two ways to meet the needs of fans in cow pastures. (Don't think about the folks with a $200,000+ motor coach with a foldout HDTV with satellite to watch the game.) Give the game to the masses. Designate parking lots that will have huge TVs to broadcast the game. Set it up in a way the people enjoy the game together. It has to be more fun that going to a sports bar and running into sPitt and Notre Lame fans. Of course, there is a money angle to this. The cow pastures with giant TVs should be arranged in a way that you can park, tailgate, and watch the game, for a premium over normal parking – sort of like an old drive-in movie.

Obviously, the premium would be less than a non-student ticket, say $30 per vehicle. This could easily add up to hundreds of thousands dollars of extra revenue.

The other alternative venue idea off the top of my head would be to use the Bryce Jordon Center. The old folks will like this one, especially in November when it gets nippy outside. Simply sell tickets at a greater premium over the cow pasture TV venue, but under the cost of Beaver stadium admission.

Let's tie this idea together. All venues are choreographed when it comes to TV coverage. Imagine ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/BTN scanning between 115,000+ in Beaver Stadium (remember stadium expansion), tens of thousands in cow pastures, and Bryce Jordan Center filled to the rafters. That might even impact recruiting in a positive way.

So get off your duff and start e-mailing the university, and while you're at it, e-mail the Gov. Tell Rendell, that there's uncompleted work on 322 on the way into State College – we need a super highway ALL the way from Harrisburg to State College.