‘We’re open to anything and everything.’ PSU could add logos to Beaver Stadium’s field

Recent NCAA rule changes have opened the door for schools to put logos on fields, opening sponsorship opportunities for programs across the country.

With Beaver Stadium already in the early stages of renovations, that opens the door for Penn State to add an extra revenue stream to help pay for those alterations and other athletic department expenses, including those from the historic settlement in the House vs. NCAA case.

So will it?

“We’re open to anything and everything right now,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft told the Centre Daily Times. “You can’t turn down anything. We’ve got this $22 million bill with the House settlement that we’re going to invest in. We have got to find all avenues to recoup money. And we’re also doing a renovation, so we’re going to be open to anything that comes.”

The ever-evolving state of college athletics makes it difficult to pin down a timeline on when a deal could be struck to add a logo to the Beaver Stadium field. Kraft said there’s “nothing really there” as of Tuesday afternoon, but admitted the pace at which things can change in college football has increased drastically of late.

Still, when that time comes, it won’t just be about the money, Kraft said. There are other items the athletic department will consider when it comes time to make a decision, and that would also be the case in the future if the NCAA ever approves putting sponsorship logos on jerseys.

“You don’t just take a logo and put it on there,” Kraft said. “You want to make sure it’s the appropriate partnership. ... You take it in, you try to do an assessment. OK, what really is the value? ... Personally, I think it’s extremely valuable. But somebody has to pay for it.”

There is also the question of Beaver Stadium itself and whether the name could ever completely change for the sake of revenue. For those who enjoy the history of the name, there is no need to worry.

“It’s always going to be Beaver Stadium,” Kraft said. “That’s our name. There’s a reason for that. It’ll be Beaver Stadium.”

That does not necessarily mean the name won’t be elongated or slightly altered to add a sponsor, but the primary name will always remain, according to Kraft.

And there are other avenues for the athletic department to make money off of the stadium, even if the name remains. The Luke Combs concert that took place in the spring is an example of that, but there are plenty of other ways the department is exploring.

Those will only increase when the renovation is complete.

“As we future plan with the new west side, it’s ‘OK, what are the daily events we can have?’” Kraft said. “It’s gonna have, not only just the welcome center, which can welcome perspective students, but also it looks like — and these things evolve, we’re not really at the final phase of design — potentially a 44,000-square-foot event space. I think that is extremely valuable. That is a piece that, it will be used almost close to 365 (days) a year. ... I just don’t think there’s a space like that anywhere around us.

“When you look at the building living and breathing all the time, that space to me is huge.”