STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Changes to football season ticket guidelines at Penn State aim to boost attendance two years after the school instituted new donation levels that left some fans unhappy.
Despite Penn State's 39-28 homecoming game win over Northwestern on Saturday, average attendance is down slightly since 2010, though donations to the football booster club are up slightly.
To counter, Penn State last week lowered minimum donation levels for about 11,500 seats at 106,572-seat Beaver Stadium. Other donation levels were frozen, too, and the school has promised to hold the line on the actual price of tickets of $55 per game.
The athletic department is self-supporting and doesn't draw from tuition dollars. Athletic officials had said years ago that the department faced mounting budget pressures -- long before the NCAA levied sanctions in July including a $60 million fine.
The department has said the booster club donations are used to help pay for other sports -- and won't be used to pay the fine.
WPXI
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
:quality(70)/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/04-19-2024/t_c091c1951d7141898980ea42c6448bdc_name_t_940de251e54b4db09cf9c3659504987c_name_towtruckcharges11pp041824_transfer_frame_344.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/W3Q5W65YHVHNLFPJFHHN7P6Y6M.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/QPGPXM2MIRD55C4XECD7SWHAU4.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LSZTZUGJCVFQJD5FDBDT6MCI3E.jpeg)
:quality(70)/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/04-19-2024/t_b1ca2a4ee6014709bd6e4222bea03be2_name_Image__9__scaled.jpg)